The Rose Parade

The morning of the parade dawned clear, warm and sunny.  I'm told that it has only rained twice in 123 years on parade day.  We left our hotel and drove to Kurt's house where we had a quick breakfast then walked the two blocks to our seats in the grandstand.  There were an estimated 700,00 people this year and everyone was smiling and in a happy mood.  Some people took the opportunity to showcase their beliefs:

 While others just showed really bad fashion sense.

At exactly 8:00, the parade started with a flyover of a stealth bomber. I almost missed getting a picture because it was so quiet!

Stealth bomber

Geico had a skywrite in the air the wrote "Happy New Year", but due to the sun I could only get a part of what they wrote:

Skywriter

It only took about 20 minutes for us to see the first of the parade.

Beginning of Parade

And the first float:

First float

 What followed were 90 more floats, bands, horses and, of course, pooper scoopers! Don't worry - I'm not going to show them all, just some highlights.

City of Glendale, Ellie the Elephant

US Bank, Idea Factory

Shriner's Hospital, Soaring for Kids

Downey Rose Float Association, Enchanted Paradise

Arcadia Band

Band Hats

Another Band

Color Guard

Buffalo Soldiers

Some horses

More horses

One of several pooper scooper crews

One of the bands, the All Lubbock Marching Band prompted a patriotic display from the crowd, while singing "Deep in the Heart of Texas.

Lubbock Flag Wavers

Sid later talked to one of the flag wavers and was told they had no connection to the band.  Someone had handed them flags and asked them to stand and wave them when the band came by!  We thought they were all grandparents of kids in the band!

Some more interesting views of the parade:

Cool thingys

Cool thingys closed

Cool thingys open

Calliope

Cops on, of course, Honda motorcycles

This woman and all the miniature horses came from Tucson

We could tell when the TV commercials were shown, as the parade stopped coming and people began walking in the streets.



Crowd scene looking east

All too soon, the end of the parade came into view.

Huge group of horses, all carrying the American Flag

Tournament of Roses Legacy Finale Float

The very end

We heard later that an OCCUPY group tried to join the parade at the end, but we didn't see it.  I guess the cops or parade officials or someone put the kibosh on that.

With that, we left the stands and walked over to have lunch at an outdoor eatery and go shopping.  Alas, all the shops in Pasadena were CLOSED!  So we walked back to Kurt's house, had a little rest, then headed to Pamona, CA to watch the Rose Bowl.

Oregon Ducks

Wisconsin Badgers

Kurt's friends live in an 83 year old traditional California/Spanish bungalow.  It looked quite small from the outside, but had very spacious rooms, beautiful hardwood floors and wonderful arches in all the rooms.  We had plenty of snacks, good conversation and a great time watching the game - GO DUCKS!

Tired from all the day's activities, we headed back to the hotel and bed.  Tomorrow would be another early one, as we had tickets to go see the floats up close.