Happy 150th Birthday to Vancouver, Washington!

Today is the 150th birthday of our city and we had a big all day celebration. The celebration was held at Esther Short Park, the oldest park in Clark County. It lasted all day.

I got there before the celebration started because the Saturday Market was also there as it is each week March through October. I didn't want to get anything today but I was looking for my Zucchini squash that I get every two weeks -- this one booth saves bigger ones for me for 50 cents apiece! I talked to them about picking up a couple on Sunday afternoon.

I also saw a plant lady that had a neat trellis and I asked her where she got it --she told me she could sell me one if I came back Sunday as she had more at home. I am so glad I arranged to do that because it was perfect for my Schefflera!

While I was getting it, I decided I needed another plant also and got this unusual dark purple with green Coleus.

OK, back to the celebration!

The first entertainment on stage was "ONE OF A KIND DRUMLINE. The drum teacher played with them as he directed the whole band. They were a group of elementary school kids from Marshall Elementary. They were great is not enough praise for these young kids, both boys and girls. I was sad when it ended after 45 minutes of continual playing.

They had musical entertainment all day long until 10:00 PM. In between sets, they and raffles for prizes donated by different stores and also threw Tshirts with the 150th birthday celebration logo on them. (I finally caught a T-shirt on the last batch they had and was happy about that. I would have bought one but they were not for sale.)

There was entertainment for the kids, including games and this giant ball to jump on and roll around.

The pie eating contest was fun to watch. I sure wanted soem of that apple pie but I didn't have the desire to get my face and hair all sticky.


There was a baking contest and many prizes in several categories. I only got to take a photo of this one before the judges shooed me away. . . Ü

A local burger joint here, Burgerville USA, gave out 2,000 free lunches consisting of a Tillamook Cheeseburger and chips of your choice and Pepsi or lemonade. They didn't do this 'til 3:30 so I don't think they had as many takers as they thought they would get because they announced that we could go back for seconds! Of course, I did!
The cake cutting ceremony was a jumble when the mayor said we could get on stage with the baker from the Hilton (located across the street from the park) cut the cake to officially declare the 150th birthdya party event. This is the best "shot" I could get with everyone crowded up there! Well, not everyone but many!

By 6:00 PM, I was tired and walked to the bus station to take a bus home,missing the big bands music and dancing. It was ok. I had a good celebration anyway.