Thursday, January 1, 2009

Rose Parade

It's been over 20 years since we were last at the Rose Parade. I woke the kids up at 3:30am (since they didn't go to bed until after midnight, they didn't get too much sleep.) They dressed in their warm clothes; and we left the house a little after 4am for Pasadena. We parked on Orange Grove Blvd and walked through the float staging area.

We walked right up to all the floats. They were amazing and smelled great! Some of the floats were giving away extra flowers. I received 3 sprays of orchids from the Baliwood float.

Here's us waiting for the parade to begin. The kids walked around a bit while Jim and I held our "spot." It was a long 2 hour wait, but it was a great "spot" LOL!

Let the Parade begin! We kept watching for the B2 fly-over. We were wondering why it didn't show up. We thought maybe this year's budget only allowed for a skytyper... We heard later on TV that the B2 was held up because of ice. It showed up exactly at 9:06am. I didn't have my camera turned on then (my battery was getting low) so I didn't get a picture.

Here are some favorite floats:
Of course the Mission Viejo float, with the pool on top. Those kids must have been freezing!!!

... and the Huntington Beach float... This was amazingly tall!!!

I love the colors in this photo. All the floats were very colorful, I just happened to catch the light right on this one.

This one was fun! It smelled like buttered popcorn, and Godzilla was snorting popcorn out of his nose.

We all agree this one was a favorite. It's the Jack in the Box float. It didn't have any fancy hydrolics. They played live music and there was dancing, and lots of energy! Great Fun!!!

We had a fun time...
I think we'll be ready to go back again in another 20 years...
Happy New Year Everyone!!!

4 comments:

  1. What beautiful photos. Looks like a fun time.

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  2. I LOVE all the float photos! How FUN is that.. Happy New Year to you and your family Joni!

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  3. That looks like fun! We watched it on TV and my kids were really sad we weren't actually there. They didn't GET that you have to get up realllly early to do that! LOL!! I loved that swimming pool float and the Huntingbeach beach one, too!

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  4. happy new year!!! and lucky ducks!! i REALLY wanted to go see the parade when we were out there. the closest i got was going to the rose bowl flea market (which totally rocked)!

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