February 19, 2006

It was deceptively cold as we all met downtown. The thermometer outside my house read 24 degrees but the sky was a cloudless blue.

Kelly has had a crew of folks working for weeks inside the building on First and Main getting ready for today's big event.

An encased shaft was built, that goes from the ceiling inside the first floor room where "The Grill" will be, through the second floor space and up through the roof!

When I got downtown it was about 6:45 a.m., and I saw that Kelly's 1957 red flat bed Chevy was already there and waiting with the 30 plus foot stainless steel pipe sitting on the back.

It wasn't too much longer after that, that the crane lift arrived. Barricades were put out in the street and the crane was set up to hoist the exhaust pipe and the vent fan to the roof.

Patrick, Kelly's oldest son was there snapping a few historic photos as well as helping out on the roof. You can see the Marcus Whitman Hotel in the background of the bottom left picture.

The sun just start coming up over the Blue Mountains as the exhaust pipe was being lifted to the roof. Once the pipe was secured in the ventilation shaft, it was time to send up the other equipment.