Back to the Waterfront Blues Festival, July 5, Let's get this party started! And several inadvertent plugs for corporate sponsors

First large-scale sight of the day, right about 10:30 a.m., a welcoming spray from the Portland Water Bureau's fireboat. To me, it doesn't get any better than this--living in a city with a river running through it, populated by all sorts of waterborne vessels, some outfitted with water canons! Well, I have to tell the truth, it does get better, when the water is red, white and blue. Rising above the Willamette River is the north- and south-bound Interstate 5 on the Marquam Bridge. The various shaped roofs you see, and the red chimney, are the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, a great place to visit. The red letters you can see on the wall, beneath the leftmost water cannon spray, spell OMSI. We say Ahm-zee around here.
 

First large-scale sound of the day, the Transcendental Brass Band played their way across the bowl at Tome McCall Waterfront Park on their way to the rest of the festival grounds. Love, love, love those sounds!

BTW, did you see the inadvertent plugs for corporate sponsors? Two are major sponsors, FedEx and Kia, the other is a Safeway Sponsorship Partner, Dave's Killer Bread.

A primary color, blue, lots and lots of blues

The various blues of the lap quilt made by Mama's Aunt Eva and adored by our Duncan, the darlin' dachshund.


The powder blues of a summertime hydrangea.


The blue of the fireboat water spray, Rose Festival, 2008, when the fleet came in to dock.


Blue wildflower at the Festival of Flowers, Pioneer Courthouse Square, downtown Portland.

The Rose Festival Fleet is in.

After work Thursday, I spent several hours watching this huge ship and one other come in, complete with the Portland Fire Bureau's fireboat honoring their arrival.

USS KIDD arrives. The dark strip across the top of the photo is the underneath of the Steel Bridge with both the lower and upper levels lifted. That's one of it's towers to the left. In the background the open bridge is the Broadway. And that slight arch you can see going from the Kidd upward to the left is part of the arch on the Fremont Bridge.


I stood in amazement as the tugs swiveled the Kidd right there in front of me, so that its bow pointed back towards the Steel Bridge, then pushed it up to dock beside the USS Lake Champlain which had come in earlier in the day.








The fire bureau boat continued upriver as the Kidd was turned. I realized that I needed to change from my zoom lens to the regular one and stepped to the other side of the walkway along the east side of the river, right at river level. Already I had put up the hood of my raincoat to keep the brisk, cool wind off my head. As I turned my back to the fire boat to make preparations to change lenses, I heard something coming towards me--the spray from a fireboat cannon! In seconds I was drenched as if I'd stepped into a waterfall, shoes full of water--not from the spray but from the stream of water. Thank goodness I had my hood up and my back to the boat! Thank goodness nothing happened to my camera or lenses! Not only had I been able to see the fire boats shooting water, I'd met that water up close and personal, an utterly unforgettable memory.


USS GARY arrives. You can see the entire Steel Bridge opening in this photo and that the Broadway Bridge has already closed.








You can see evidence of the wind that blew the entire evening in this shot of the Gary's flag. It says, "USS Gary FFG-51. Two guns. Back off varmint!" I took about a dozen shots but couldn't get a better one than this.


Left to right, USS Kidd, USS Lake Champlain, and behind them, right to left, are the USS Preble--you can see a portion of it--and the USS Gary, all you can see of it is the tower, antennas, etc. Those trees along the wall are the cherry trees in this post.


The fleet is in.


Monday is departure day.