LUNAR NEW YEAR AND MORE IN PORTLAND

My small group of five went to the Lunar New Year Parade in downtown Portland.

Yes, that Portland.

If you’ve heard about it and wonder, it’s not a smoldering city rocked by insurrection.

But it was rocking.

After living in bigger cities where most people visit and leave, including Portland, I was thrilled to see downtown come alive with activities.

The main event, the big purpose in dragging everyone along, was the Chinese Lunar New Year parade.

From portlandchinatownmuseum.org:

 

Led by the Portland Chinatown History Foundation’s 150-foot dragon, the parade will pass through the China Gate, march down SW Third Avenue to SW Jefferson and Park Street, and end at the Oregon Historical Society Park Plaza.

 

A one hundred and fifty foot dragon? I’m going for that, and if anyone else wants to come along, I’m leaving at nine.

So we left around 10:00 – 10:30 with a city plan that included a parking garage on SW 4th Ave.

Follow along on a map: 

Drive north on I-5 to the Y in the road and stay left for the 405, not right for the bridge over the Willamette, but if you freeze up in indecision and take the Marquam double decker over the Willamette, stay to the right and let traffic merge until you see the Water Ave OMSI exit.

Take that to the first stop sign and turn right. You’ll go along the river and under the ramp to the Morrison Bridge to a right turn for the Hawthorne Bridge. Watch for fast traffic coming from the right side at that stop sign and cross the river.

Hey, you’re downtown without missing a beat, or much of a beat.

Otherwise take a left at the Y, but not too far left or you’ll end up on Front Avenue.

From the 405 watch for the Beaverton exit, but relax, you’re not going to Beaverton. But still take it.

At the last moment you’ll see on exit for 12th Ave, sort of an exit off an exit.

You should be going east on one way Market, then a left on SW Park.

Watch for PSU pedestrians.

 

The Dragon At OHS

The local history museum was the final destination on Saturday, so I thought, ‘why not park nearby?’

With all of my parking travails on two continents, and counting, I found a parking spot on the street in a busy urban hub.

A four hour parking spot.

We could walk the parade route in reverse, then join in when we caught it.

But the history museum caught us first.

For twenty years the building across the South Park Blocks from the Portland Art Museum was the center of my life.

It’s where I worked, where I went to college, where I took my girlfriend to exhibit openings before we got married.

It’s where I brought my kids to events and celebrations for years.

And yesterday I brought them back.

It was a free museum day even though I’m a member in good standing, so we looked around some, then looked around some more, and before you know it we were on a family museum tour.

I saw the director and said hello and invited him over to meet my group.

He was on his game and added an extra shine to the afternoon.

During my tour a mom with her young daughter invited the kid with us to go into the wind tunnel.

She was the Development Officer working on a Saturday and her daughter was experiencing the museum the way my kids did at the same age.

Long story short, I’m scheduling a museum tour of storage with her to see all of my old artifacts.

 

Strong Traditions, Long Traditions

Because I’m of an age called baby boomer, or old, things like traditions have special meaning.

You never know when you’ll be back some place the way young people with all of the time in the world make plans of returning to far flung places.

And you’ll never know who you’ll be with in this era of goodbyes to so many.

The old ‘death scroll’ seems pretty busy.

One after another I learn of rock and roll pioneers taking their last encore before leaving the stage for the last time.

That so many are in their 80’s makes me wonder what happened to ‘Live Fast, Die Young, Leave A Good Looking Corpse.’

For all of the sex, drugs, and rock and roll, how do they live so long?

You know their work is not finished when a five year old requests Iron Man.

A recent twitter scroll came from a man talking about being a dad, Bob Odenkirk.

It was followed by a mile of people agreeing with him, another mile of parental remorse, followed by another mile of ‘I’m glad I’m done with all of that.’

On Saturday I was on a happy family high that included kids, wife, a parade, a farmer’s market, a protest, the SheBrew beer festival.

We closed out at Farmhouse Kitchen Thai and another dragon for a two dragon day.

 

PS:  

If you find yourself wallowing in uncertainty, feeling disconnected from the life you once knew, find a dragon and follow it.

PSS:

Learn the steps.