The plan this year, for my group of friends, was to attend the First Night celebration up in Northampton. At least the night-time end of it. Amazingly, we were able to get reservations at the Sierra Grille on Pearl St. for dinner. Even more amazingly, everyone was able to make it.
The food, as well as the service, was great. Most of the group got entree's and salads, while me and Tom decided to mix and match various appetizers and sides, to create our own dishes. I had buffalo wings, rice, and asparagus. Healthy? I dunno. Spicy? Yes.
The beer really helped tie it all together...
We finished up dinner about 11:15. It was just in time to take a stroll around the block to the Hotel Northampton where they were raising the New Years ball at midnight. Abrupt cannon fire from the green near the hotel directed us to the center of activity. We followed these two party-seekers.
As we got there, there was a pretty good crowd already developing.
I don't know who these two guys were, but they had blogger written all over them.
WGGB was there, taking footage from the top of their van. They had to beat back several revelers, trying to climb up the ladder to join them.
As midnight approached, the cannon was fired again, as the crowd quickly began to grow.
Soon the intersection and King St. was jammed with revelers. Everyone was pretty upbeat.
The countdown began, everyone fixed their gaze on the ball as it began to rise, then the cannon was fired again as the ball reached the top. BOOOOOM! It's 2008! Lots of hugging, handshaking and back-patting ensued throughout the crowd.
It was a good night, and a good start to the new year.
2 comments:
Happy New Year to you all. It looks like Brian and I crossed paths with you once again. We were eating dinner at Mullino's in the same building as Sierra Grill from 6:45 p.m. to 8:15 p.m. It was very good, especially the seafood and pasta special. I also could have blogged from there (instead I wrote a story for the Gazette) as there was wireless access thanks to Pearl Street (the bar, I guess). Great crowd scenes. We skipped the end this year.
Happy New Year, It was my first time at the First Night festivities. Next time I'll have to get there earlier and check out the day-long events...
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