Gary-Summer: November 29, 2024

Friday, November 29, 2024

November 29, 2024 - Salem

Gary, Andrea, and David cutting tree

Title: November 29, 2024 - Salem
Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's

Hike Info:

Type: After Thanksgiving

Description:

The morning is rather slow. I am part of the slowness. I was well after 7:30 before I got up. Lawrence and Andrea are creating pancakes for our breakfast. Sounds like a continuation of yesterday’s feast. Andrea turns over the pancake making to Sherri and Lawrence no longer has split duties as I try the bacon. All in all, pretty tasty.

David and Lawrence

Then it is more puzzle playing. Also reading and relaxing in general relaxing.

Why do we need to relax? Some of us are going to cut a Christmas Tree. First, we stop by an Ace Hardware store where we debate for a while about a stand for the tree. Some employees took pity on us and noted that there is a 50% off on one item if we spent more than $30. Lawrence picked up a stand and I bought a tree skirt for them.

Taking home the tree

Then it is off to pick out a tree. It is a bit west of Salem and definitely not on any major road. You need to know about it to go to it. The name is Eola Christmas Trees. A young lady comes out and gives us some information about the layout. I think I surprised her a bit by saying how wonderful today is. That seems to be an unusual greeting. She explains there are four families which are selling the trees. We go up a hill and spot several trees before settling on a 6 ½ foot tree. It has a nice shape. It gets tied to the roof of the Highlander and we go to get checked out. The lady is now a cashier and notes we are her favorite customers. I suspect she says this to many people.

The Wreath at Home

We get back to Andrea and Lawrence’s home. The place is set up for the tree and it is put up. Then the decorations go up and it looks like it belongs in this house. Very attractive. After the tree is up, there is not much group activity, even though we do tend to clump into groups and enjoy the time together.

And that is how it is until dinner happens. There was not really a sit-down dinner, but we all eventually migrated into the kitchen, picked up a plate and figured out where to sit and enjoy the leftovers from the last couple of days.

Andrea has made arrangements with Jason to go to the Salem Christmas Parade. The parade is put on by the Salem Chamber of Commerce. We will try to find Jason’s group when we get there. We found a place to park in the Marion Parkade-a parking garage. Then walked three blocks to the parade. A pretty good crowd.

We spend a few minutes trying to figure out where the Jason brood are. Andrea suggested getting some hot chocolate at Archive Coffee and Grill. This warms up most of us-it is cool. In the meantime, Andrea and Jason have been communicating. They are several blocks over. We make our way there.

We get to the right intersection, but the wrong side of the street. We watched several floats go by before mustering up the courage to cross between parade participants. Some of our group hesitated and were slow in crossing. But the parade was not held up because of us. We find Sue, Jason, Lisen, and the kids. Together we watch the last third of the parade.

After Santa and the fire trucks went by, the parade officially ended. But all were invited to follow the engines to the Christmas tree lightning on top of a building. Before the lightning, we need to sing Christmas songs and then some more songs. Finally Santa gets lifted up on a fire engine’s ladder and lights the tree.

The crowd breaks up, but the kids get a picture with the Christmas elf. Then we start back to our cars. Jason's group goes one way and the rest of us go back to Andrea and Lawrence’s house. There Sherri realizes we have not taken a family picture yet. We get together around the fresh cut tree and get a suitable picture.