Rose Parade

 This morning Vanessa and I woke up at 5:30 and got ready to go to the Rose Parade. We left the house and walked to Colorado Blvd, about 3 blocks from my house.

At 7AM the streets were filled with people. Families had camped out all night on the sidewalks and in the street. People were sleeping in sleeping bags, they had air mattresses, some brought portable heaters, and others had fire pits. It was quite the scene. I would compare it to the Hoovervilles my high school American History text book talked about during the Great Depression (minus the cell phones and iPads.)

You could also see the aftermath of NYE celebrations. The streets were covered with confetti and tortillas. I have never seen tortillas being thrown in celebration before. Interesting.

 Once V and I found our bleacher seats, we had about an hour and 45 minutes until the parade reached our part of the route. We got hot chocolate from the McDonald's across the street, who clearly has a lot of experience on the day of the Rose Parade. The line was outside only and they had 5 people taking orders ahead of time. If you were only getting drinks and paying cash they had them ready for you to pick up and a table to add what ever you needed. It was a well oiled machine.

 We had a great view from our front row bleacher seats. It was cold, but we brought plenty of blankets and wore layers.

The theme of the parade this year was "Oh, the Places You'll Go" based on the book by Dr. Seuss. This was the first float of the parade.

 This year the Grand Marshall was Jane Goodall. I thought it was cool to see her, but the lady sitting next to me had no idea who she was. Hello? She's pretty famous! However, I didn't realize how old she is.

Queen Vanessa is this year's Rose Queen. She is a senior at Mayfield High School an all girls school in Pasadena. She has 6 princesses in her court who are also high school seniors.

I enjoyed hearing the bands in the parade. There were bands from high schools in the US and also international bands from Japan, Mexico, and El Salvador. My favorite band was from a small town in Iowa. They worse white clogs because I think their mascot was the Dutch. They stomped their feet in rhythm with the songs they played which acted as more percussion. I wish I had gotten a picture of them.

 Both the Stanford and Wisconsin football teams had floats in the parade. The bands were featured and the cheerleaders did tricks. Go Stanford! They won the Rose Bowl 20-14 this afternoon.

The floats were pretty amazing and it was fun to see them finished. The colors were great and they were very elaborate. I missed watching the parade on TV though because when you watch the floats go by in person you don't get the commentary or the background story.

 The parade lasted over 2 hours but it didn't feel that long while we were watching. My legs and butt were really happy to stand up when it was over. Within 10 minutes of the end of the parade, the street completely cleared out. People packed up their camps and were already getting in their cars. It was like nothing had happened and all you could see was trash left everywhere.

Vanessa and I were home in my apartment by 11:30. We napped until 1:00 and then enjoyed our free afternoon.

I am happy I got to go to the Rose Parade this year. I liked being able to walk and I was so glad we had tickets because camping in the freezing cold did not look fun. I am not sure if I would want to make it an every year event, but if I do go back, I want to sit on the main intersection where they film the parade for national TV. Now I also know that if you have tickets you can show up 5 minutes before the parade reached your block of the street and not miss anything. I gained some rookie knowledge.

Fun way to bring in the New Year and I am glad I got to share the memories with Vanessa.