NOSEBLEED SEATS, GIGGLES AND SCAIRY STREETS

All of these were part of my adventure in the big city of Portland.

I have aleays watched the Winter Olympics for years , especially my favorite event Figure Skating. Through the years there have been favorites that I have cheered for as I have watched them do their dazzeling performances. Mischel Kwan, Sasha Cohen & many others have held me spellbound as I watched. I have always wished that I could be there in person veiwing their performances, so when my daughter Tammy told me that she was thinking of taking my oldest granddaughter to the Champions on Ice show for a belated birthday present & asked if I would like to go, I was really excited about the prospect of seeing so many of them in person performing, I very happily sent her the money for my ticket to be reserved.

I had never been in the huge arena, nor for that matter had she, so we were surprised at the location of our seats in what I jokingly called the nosebleed section. She has already described our daunting climb to where we were to sit.

One disadvantage prooved to be the cold Artic blast of the Air condition which seem especially fridged where we were sitting. I have been fighting a bad Sinus infection for several months, so was a bit susceptable to the cold air. Fortunately I had brought a coat with a hood & I attmpted to cover up my head as much as possible. When during intermission we moved a number of rows down, it didn't seem to be as cold as where we had been sitting. To my delight the people below were not nearly as tiny as they appeared from our top of the world vantage point.

I think what I enjoyed the most was watching my little granddaughter & hearing her giggle each time the performer turned to our section to receive their cheers & claps. Along with the trusty whistle came that delightful giggle when it was our turn to cheer.

The Arena has an excellent veiw of the Ice made possible by it's round design & those seats which seemed to rise up straight from the floor, so I guess that was why they were designed in this strange manner.

More hazardous than the climb to those seats,were the streets in downtown Portland which Tammy has written about in a previous post on her blog. I have never seen such disregard for the safety of pedestrians attempting to cross the street as I witnessed first hand when we tried to cross. One driver, a woman, was comletely stopped in the crosswalk. My daugher was attmpting to get both my self & her daughter safely to the other side & out of the path of the oncoming cars turning right at us. In the process my poor hand that she had ahold of was bent in an shall we say a very uncomfortable position. Not until we had safely reached the other side, did she find out why she was recieving resistance to her helpful tugging as she tried to safely manuver us out of the path of the oncoming cars which were turning the corner coming straight at us. I frankly think she deserves a medal for driving on those downtown streets. To add to the pedestrian problem, the little green man as she refers to the picture representing the walk symbal, only stays on for the brief time before the don't walk sign is flashing. Now to my mind, a person would have to be an Olympic sprinter to make it across in the lenghth of time allowed by the signal

All in all though my adventure into the big city was a wonderful experience in spite of the scairy streets & difficult climb. Watching the skaters glide across the Ice to the the music they had chosen to skate to was indescribably beutiful. They are in perfect unity & harmony with the music as they make their turns & move their arms & legs in perfect rhythem to the songs that are played through the speakers. And of course my favorite part of all was that delightful giggle.