Rose Festival!

Ok, so I am really behind, but back in June, we went to the Rose Festival! As you may know, Portland is the Rose City (or City of Roses? I am not sure the official title) but anyway, they have a Rose Festival every year and we had to go since I am a foreigner and a newbie! Most of their festivals and fun stuff is held on their Waterfront Park; along the Willamette River. (You'll probably remember seeing pictures of when we took a walk along the Waterfront on my birthday-Get used to seeing them, we'll probably be going there several times this Summer)

First, we saw this:

A 100 year old bridge lifting up for a boat to cross. I've never seen a drawbridge like this! It was pretty dang cool and the engineering has to be amazing!

All traffic has to stop on both sides. It's so neat to just sit and watch. Luckily, they have several bridges that cross the river, so the entire city isn't stuck if a boat has to cross. I thought that was pretty smart.

Before we got in to the festival, I saw this guy and just had to answer. Yes, there is an after life!

Then, we were finally in!! It was mainly a carnival or fair. But hello! Those are the funnest thing and a classic Summer activity!

My delicious fried fair food! KR got the noodles in the background! So yummy!

Ok, look at this! THIS is an ELEPHANT EAR! In Portland, they make them them life size apparently!! Oh my gosh! and it was only like 8 bucks, which is a great price for fair food, considering most things are 6 bucks and this would feel the whole family! So cool! Yes, I stopped the random girl to take a picture of her food!

Tie-Dye in Portland=understatement!!

Our elephant ear! Not quite as big. . . haha

So not only was it the Rose Festival, but because it was Saturday, they had the Saturday Market too. Boy was it busy! I loved it!! There were tons of performers and just kind of nutty people out!

If you can't read the sign he's holding, it says, "We need to feed our monkey." Hahah

Then there was this lady dancing with her hula hoop along with the band. She was definitely happy and care-free. . .

This girl had "Free Shiny Rocks" and I overheard her telling another girl about this one she found, that her response to was, "Whoooooooooooaaaaaaa."

This guy was missing half his arm but he was still jamming on the guitar! How awesome is that?

There was so much going on; it was SO fun!! It was definitely different than what I am used to, but it was such a cool experience.

Ya, Oregon has a ton of rapid transit/train type stuff everywhere. You actually get paid to ride your bike. So we're walking through and the previous picture I took as we were walking. As soon as I got the area in front of those cards and pillars, I turn around and this is in my face! Um, is that safe? Where's the yellow line to stand behind like at Disneyland?

Such a cool day. I loved learning about the new city I'm living in. As much as I miss California and home and my family, I am trying to enjoy Oregon while I am here. It really is so pretty. I took the rest of these on the walk back to the car.

This is a little off subject, but it's a picture taken from the front door of KR's parents' house. It's taken at my favorite time of day and from my favorite view of their beautiful property. I love the warm sunshine coming through the red tree and then whole scene is just one that you have to stop and just sigh. Life is good.