LEAP night recap

LEAP night redux

I wussed out and drove down to LEAP night instead of taking the train. Mostly because I was travelling with the delightful MarJ and another friend and figured we would be too cold to wait around for the Red Line when the night schedule takes over.

Upon showing up at the site the first thought was that we had stumbled upon a homeless encampment. Huddled masses arranged around metal drums filled with fire, in the distance a small bonfire burned. I suppose the major difference would be the food tents, the projected "Rock Band" competition, the fire troupe and the freestyle snowboard, ski ramp.

I was amazed at the good turnout. When we were there (for the hour and change that our poorly dressed bodies could handle) we saw entire families with little kids running around, young and old couples, and the typical 20something crowd looking at the ruins of the city, the frozen river and the going-ons.

Gypsy Bean and coffee operated a food tent supplying pizza and similar fare (and cookies!) with coffee or hot chocolate to stay warm. Either folks dressed as bears, or well spoken actual bears, mingled in the crowd handing out snacks and checking on everyone's health. The only thing that didn't cooperate was the weather. If it would have stayed cold then the ground wouldn't have devolved into inches of slush. It is hard to argue when the weather gets warmer in February around here so I won't make much of an issue about it.

As we were leaving it seemed as if many more people were arriving and that parking was going to get quite scarce, quite quickly. I was actually really excited and think the folks putting this thing together deserve quite a bit of credit. They managed to pull off a rather fun and interesting event on a spectacular locale and, well to be honest, it rekindled a little spark of hope that has seemed so dim lately*.

*I will wax poetic any damn time I please.