We watched from our window as the folks at Joe's Secret Garden set off their effigies, just down the street from us..
We finally headed downstairs about 10PM to light ours. Little did we know how LONG it can take for even a small effigy to burn...maybe would have been faster if we had several as we saw in later photos, all stacked up in a teepee type pile as the folks at Joe's did. But, burn him we did, on the sidewalk across from our building...here are a few photos of the process. We set him up against the wall but finally had to lay him down to get the fire going better. Yes, it does look a little creepy....LOL!
Burn complete, we each took our turn at jumping over the ashes (no way were we going to jump over the live fire). Okay, so we stepped over them...but we each did it the requisite three times!
Once the ashes were no longer a danger, we headed back to the apartment to get a couple of beers and go up to our rooftop terrace. The light show was starting although sporadic. We love the view from up there...day or night! There was a halo around the moon and already there was a haze of smoke settling over the city.
By quarter of twelve it was getting more regular. At midnight for a full 20 minutes we had fireworks in a full circle around us. About a dozen folks joined us and we all ooh-ed and aah-ed over the display. We have never seen anything like it anywhere! It was hard to get get photos because of the need to set my zoom and then focus, but I did get a few.
We also watched dozens of lantern bags (luminaries?) set off to fly away...a gorgeous sight.
Friends have shared photos and videos of the scene in El Centro, our downtown area. Chaotic sensory overload - lots of fires from the effigy burning, loud music and fireworks. Too much for these two old farts but we sure enjoyed our evening. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015!
