There are few things I love more than:
1. Portland
2. The holidays
Last night I went to the tree lighting down in Portland's Living Room, aka Pioneer Square, and it was awesome! Can't believe I had never done that before, given my penchant for cheering all things Yuletide. It was completely packed, but terribly fun. We were next to an old guy with a very thick New York accent, handing out tiny communion-sized cups and telling everyone to get ready for his champagne toast, apparently a tradition for him he carried out at Rockefeller Center for decades. Sadly, no one really wanted to engage the guy and we were all a little suspicious that this "champagne" might be a 40 of Old E, but turns out we were all wrong and he produced as promised. We toasted with our tiny cups of bubbly, cheered, hooted, and hollered when they finally lit the 75-foot tree. Just as I turned to chat the old man up and introduce myself, he sped off in his motorized chair. Maybe I'll run into him again some time.
Rounding out the festivities was some great music by members of Pink Martini and the Portland Youth Choir. Carols were sung, my toes froze, and a great time had by all. New personal tradition.
POST SCRIPT: Apparently while I was hollering "Joy to the World" at the top of my lungs and swaying with the crowd as if my life depended on it, the police were arresting a would-be terrorist a few blocks away in a sting operation. They'd been working undercover with the clearly troubled young man, who intended to set off a car bomb at the lighting. Didn't find out about any of this until this morning. News coverage here.
Daily Food 11/26/10
Breakfast: leftover yams, Honeycrisp apple
Lunch: salad, Greek veggie pizza
Dinner: roasted squash, mushrooms, leftover stuffing, cranberries
Misc: Hot Toddies downtown!
2 comments:
My brother scored some tickets to the Blazer's game last night, so I had to skip the tree lighting. However, we took the MAX train from 10th and Yamhill over to the Rose Garden... and as our train was waiting at 6th and Yamhill for a green light, the tree lit up. So we were able to see the lighting from inside the train without having to fight the crowds.
The place looked packed, I don't see how anyone could speed off on a motorized scooter in that crowd, but maybe my view from MAX wasn't so accurate.
I'll probably head down there tonight to snap some pictures, relatively crowd-free. :)
The crowd thinned out pretty quickly after the actual tree lighting, which was at precisely 6:11, btw... and the older gentleman must have seen an out and made a beeline.
Reading up now on the police sting that was taking place while all of this holiday joy was happening!
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