One More Reason I Love Portland

Portland has amazing fireworks shows! I've been to a few in the past, the Fort Vancouver show, the Oak Hills Neighborhood show, but the best, for being uniquely Portland, is the show on the Willamette River. They set up barges in the river and shoot fireworks off of them. The fireworks light up the whole city and reflect in the river. I love that it feels as if the entire city is out, celebrating with you. I met up with friends for a BBQ and then took the streetcar to the waterfront. We found an open area, set up our blanket, and about 5 minutes later, the fireworks started. We had just enough crazy, drunk people around us to make it interesting but they we feeling very patriotic and just kept yelling, "America!" and "Freedom!" We thought about yelling "Beauty" and "Truth" a la Room with a View. Afterwards, we got appetizers and dessert at Lucier. It's a beautiful restaurant, right on the waterfront. Everything we had was delicious or so I was told. I don't like creme brulee so I had to take everyone's word on that one. The outside seating was perfect. The plates and tea service were the prettiest we'd ever seen, an adult tea party. The valet was flirt-worthy. The waitstaff was friendly and knowledgeable, they even gave us a tour of the dining room so we could see the river that flows around the tables, the white wall with white grafitti carvings to represent the urban feel of Portland, and the mirrored, angled, dome to represent Mt Hood. It's a splurge but we're worth it.

Here are some fireworks photos from Sara's flickr.



P.S. If you go to Lucier, be sure to go to the bathrooms, they are gorgeous!