Christmas Ships 2011

So the Christmas Ship Parade is one of those events that we heard about from quite a few different people last year, but being new to the Portland area had no idea what they were talking about! This year, though, we paid attention - I cut out the schedule from the newspaper and when some friends said they were going, we volunteered to meet them there! We ended up with four families and watched from the outdoor patio of Joe's Crab Shack - a seafood restaurant just east of the I-5 bridge and right on the river.

We had hot chocolate and seafood appetizers - though I steered clear of the appetizers because my insides were still having issues from the previous week's stomach flu and I'm not a big seafood fan to begin with.

Anyway.

It took a little while for the ships to get down to where we were, but it was pretty cool to see the boats all decked out in Christmas lights. The fire truck boat w/ sirens was a big hit and the CO HO HO Salmon boat got a laugh.

The video's a bit long... and shaky... but it was the only way to get any "pictures" because trying to take pictures of the boats out on the water, in the dark was not working out for me!
Overall, we decided the Christmas Ships weren't quite a must-see every year, but definitely worth it if you have the time and some friends to go with.