HOW TO WIN THE STARLIGHT PARADE

Answer 5 Questions To Win The Starlight Parade From The Suburbs.

1. You traveled to the Starlight Parade by:

A. Bus, of course. I live my life by Tri-met. My vacations are all Tri-met vacations. Nothing beats a Tri-met schedule. We all feel the same here.

B. Drove to the train. I enjoy public transportation as long as it feels like a Disney adventure.

C. Drove all the way. Do I need to apologize from driving my American made car on an American interstate? Huh? What’re you lookin’ at?

2.If you drove to the Starlight Parade, where did you leave your car?

A. In a parking garage along the parade route. C’mon rookie. We watched from the fourth floor, got in the car, and drove back home. No big deal.

B. On a surface lot in northwest. I paid an old man sitting in a chair twenty bucks and hoped I wouldn’t get towed.

C. I cruised until I spotted a empty space at the curb. A car pulled out and I backed up half a block. Parked in two moves. In traffic. Next to a tree. Booya.

3. How did you watch the Starlight Parade?

A. From a bar on my smart phone. Duh? It’s a smart phone.

B. From a lawn chair along the route. Near a port-a-potty. We’re not spring chickens, you know

C. I dragged my spouse on a forced march along the route. Backward. Saw the whole thing in twenty minutes.

4. What was the highlight of the Starlight Parade.

A. The floats. And the bands. Nothing better than a drum solo echo off concrete canyons backed with tractor-trailers pulling a load of beauty queens by Pioneer Square. And the Grand Marshall.

via kgw.com

B. Darth Vader. He came to the Starlight Parade. I swear. I’m pretty sure. It looked like the Dark Lord, but it was dark.

C. If you’re any sort of Star Wars junkie, the best part of the Starlight Parade was Princess Leia. She made the starlight her light, too.

5. What did you do after the Starlight Parade?

A. Stormed the Sentinel Hotel for a drink at Jakes and pretended we were in Barcelona, Spain at Hotel Gaudi. It’s so cool.

B. Left with hope for a better world and thoughts of Cat Stevens singing Peace Train. Or Peace Boat. It’s been a while since I’ve heard it.

C. Walked up to McMenamin’s Zeus Cafe across the street from the Original Jakes. Got a booth with an open window on Portland and Jakes. It was a perfect Portland night after one of the biggest events of the year.

Extra Credit:

How would you feel with a crowd of 325,000 people crammed into an urban core.

Portland isn’t Baltimore, but the police presence was evident.

Was downtown Portland a ticking time bomb waiting for a match, or a city coming together to celebrate one of the uniquely Portland events of the year?

The Starlight Parade had the feel of an east coast celebration that goes further than expected.

Philadelphia has the Mummers on its New Years Day Parade.

New York has their famous St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Walking the parade route backward is a wonderful experience, but cutting through the route back to the car felt like Ground Hog Day. It never ended.

We’d seen the bands and floats once. Now twice. Boomers need a reminder?

The final view of Jakes had a particularly Portland comfort.

Did you win the Portland Rose Festival Starlight Parade?