Waterfire

This week, a friend from work organized an evening extravaganza for his boyfriend's birthday. There's a really neat event in Providence, RI called Waterfire. The basic premise is that all along the river have been placed floating baskets of firewood. After sundown, you can walk along the river lighted with bonfires, a music selection prepared for the event plays in the background, vendors sell snacks like candied nuts and kettle corn.

So, yesterday afternoon I boarded a bus to Providence (the trip is less than an hour, I have no idea why I never considered this trip before!). I met with some coworkers and other friends of the birthday boy to have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. (I had the pomegranate margarita, and angel hair pasta with tomatoes for anyone keeping track.) Everyone had a fantastic time, and there was much talking and laughing. The entire party of 13 split a single piece of cake which, after a huge Cheesecake Factory dinner, turned out to be just the right amount.

After dinner we all spent a couple hours strolling down the riverbank and admiring the flames along the river. Occasionally, a black boat full of people in black outfits came by and stacked more logs on each fire. Gondolas full of tourists or lovers skimmed by, including one lighted gondola with a costumed pirate throwing flowers to bystanders. The atmosphere of the evening reminded me of masquerades in Shakespearean literature.

These are a few photos I took of the evening. I actually took close to 70 photos and videos (with sound so you can hear the music!), but I'm going to try to post those on a separate site in the next few days. These are just the highlights. :)

a single flame floats over the water


this flame has just been rekindled

the finale was a row of flames on pedestals

proof that I was there (photo credit to Abhishek!) I tweaked this one with photoshop to get rid of my vampire eyes. If you're morbid, you can see the original here. You will note that I refrained from editing out my crazy humid hair or sweaty skin. It was HOT near all that fire!