Let's Connect!

...

Wednesday, May 20, 2020

We Drove Around Town to See a "Parade"

Every June, Portland holds the Rose Festival, with a carnival and several events. The most notable of these is the Grand Floral Parade where people flock to downtown to watch floats made of flowers and things go slowly down the street, even though they could watch it on TV. I love the parade, but it's got two major things I'm not a fan of: getting there super early to get a good spot and giant crowds. 


Now, people are known to set up their chairs the night before the parade and some even stay there overnight. I once went with my mom at 6am to stake out a spot (the parade doesn't even start until 10am) and by the time it started I was ready to go to sleep. Ever since, I've just taped it on TV and watched it at my leisure. 



This year, with Covid and the ban on gatherings of 25 or more people through September, the parade and all the other festivities have been cancelled. Bummer, right? Well, the city came up with a wicked cool way to do the parade anyway in what they are calling Parading In Place. People signed up to add their houses to a map for either the Porch Parade or the Rose Garden. These people decorated their porches, yards, house fronts in the spirit of the Grand Floral Parade, and others let people just come by to see their amazing gardens. 




We jumped in the car last week and armed with the map and our GPS, we drove across town where the majority of decorated porches were located, so we could see everyone's creativity. Granted, some porches were more involved than others, but the fact that people participated was awesome. 


The above two are not strictly for the Parade Route, but I liked how Portlanders were making their city better.

I just wanted to show that just because life seems lame right now and everything is closed doesn't mean that you can't do things or travel, even if it's just around your own city. All cities have a list of events happening, and hopefully, yours will also be trying to get creative, especially with summer coming. This is the time when a bunch of cool events are usually under way, but people are trying their best to make the most of this crazy situation. 


If you live in Portland, you can see the map and tour the Porch Parade and Rose Garden homes by going to Parading In Place. You can also search #paradinginplace on Instagram.


What cool things is your city doing to help make Quarantine more bearable? 

No comments:

Post a Comment

Pin It button on image hover