The Rose Parade is a 125 year tradition in Pasadena, that brings people into the streets, tourists, TV cameras, and is an all around huge production. This year is was freezing cold (30 degrees), and I am not sure how people managed to sleep outside all night. New Years was also a lot louder than I remember, so my guess is that people didn't sleep and waited all night for the parade to start at 8am.
This was the opening float in the parade. The theme this year was inspiring stories.
The most entertaining float was this big drum with a trampoline in the middle. The people bounced around and did flips for the entire parade. I was bummed they didn't ask me to be a bouncer!
The Rose Queen and her court.
Some of my Grout relatives are huge Oregon fans, so I couldn't help take a picture of the Oregon football team float. The band followed and they put on a good show. Oregon ended up beating Florida State in the bowl game later this evening.
This is the Donate Life float I worked on. Unfortunately my butterfly was on the other side of the street so we couldn't see it from our window. The float turned out really well, but it actually looks different with the flowers on than I imagined it. It was entirely green where all the white roses are now, so I almost didn't recognize it. Looks like a lot of other volunteers must have stayed the whole time for their eight hour shifts!
The Pink hippo was my favorite float this year. I liked how bright the colors were and it looked like the most fun.
After the parade, there was a mass exodus of people going home to get warm or going to the football game. Good thing too because I am ready for the tourists to go home and stop driving the wrong way down all of Pasadena's one way streets!
Another great parade this year and having a front row seat in our apartment will always be the best part.
great report!
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