Rose Parade

Monday, Jan 2…

Colorado Blvd, 6:30am

Rose Parade!!  Up at 4:45 cuz we had no idea what to expect traffic-wise, and we’d been instructed to arrive no later than 7am.  We had reserved bleacher seating and reserved parking, and getting in and settled was really pretty easy. Parking was hilarious – we were directly behind our bleacher section, but they filled the entire area with cars – 40 or so vehicles in like sardines. Needless to say, after the parade, the exodus was definitely orderly, but also quite slow as the more fleet-footed (or less social) folks w·a·i·t·e·d for those in front to wander down, pack in all their kids and gear, and ease onto Colorado Blvd (which was also moving like a funeral procession). But people using transit were in the same boat – they got out of downtown quickly, but then we saw crowds waiting for connecting services to the outlying areas. But nobody fusses – it’s all part of the experience. NOTE: The illumi-nated bleacher section will eventually fill up with Penn State fans.

Boring on the outside...

Left, right... Left, right...

BlogThoughts... The parade itself was fabulous, of course. The floats really are amazing, and of course I loved the music (some of those bands are HUGE!), and we had a couple of former band members behind us, so we learned lots about cadence and tubas.  There were lots of “most beautiful” floats, but the most surprising was one that looked like a huge but very ordinary motorhome. Then the whole thing slowly raised up (waaay up), revealing mini-scenes of those funny claims that Farmer's has covered over the years. We also thoroughly enjoyed the numerous “poop scoop” crews that followed each equestrian entry. They served as unofficial clowns. And there were also 2 somewhat unofficial “parades” as well: several contingents of “Repent Now” Christians (who appeared to be mostly Asian, which I found interesting) before, and a large contingent of No Pipeline! protestors afterward.