Tree Lighting in Portland

On Friday eve we went to Pioneer Courthouse Square in the heart of down town Portland to watch the 24th annual tree lighting ceremony. The tree is 75 feet tall and has 15,000 lights! It was amazing. (my picture is not very good)
It was fun to do the countdown and watch it light up. It was very crowded, about 25,000 people were there...
We do not go down town very often, so it's always a treat when we go! The kids had a good time and of course got to see some unusual things/people.

After the hustle & bustle of the tree lighting, we decided to head towards Macy's to visit Santa Land. They do an amazing job every year of creating a Santa Village complete with Elves, Gingerbread houses and reindeer, including Rudolf! We did not see Santa this time because the line was horrendously long! I assured the kids we would see him sometime soon!

This guy was a bit unusual, but very entertaining. He was on the corner across from Macy's.
He had clear glass balls that he magically moved around in his hands. His movements were so smooth, the balls appeared to be "floating".
He must have made a fortune that evening because his change bucket was stuffed with money. When Mac walked up and put a few bucks in his bucket, he bent down and shook Mac's hand. It shocked Mac a bit, but after we walked on he could not stop talking about how "cool" it was.