If you’ll be in the Pacific Northwest next week, consider heading to Depoe Bay, Oregon, for a unique Memorial Day tradition.

Since 1945, the town has remembered lives lost at sea in a moving ceremony that literally moves. A parade of wreath- and flower-bedecked boats pass under the Highway 101 bridge, which is lined with spectators. The vessels head just offshore where they form a circle and place their flowers in the water. A military helicopter drops a wreath in the middle as jets zoom overhead. 

The ceremony started to remember two men who died while trying to rescue a troller caught in a storm, and has grown over the years. The harbor service begins at 11 a.m.

Photo: Distilled Publishing