The Rose Parade! - Part One

We have been trying to do all the touristy SoCal things and what is more SoCal than the Rose Parade on New Year's Day?!  It worked out perfectly for us to go this year because my cousin J was in it!  He played the snare drum in the Wyoming High School All State Marching Band.

After a bit of internet-ing and talking to a few people we made a plan.  I wanted to camp out overnight and T definitely did not.  So we didn't.

Late on New Year's Eve we went to the start of the parade route where they were lining up the floats.  We heard that it was awesome and it was!  So many roads were blocked off and we ended up walking about half a mile to see the floats.  At first we were nervous because we weren't sure if we were allowed in that area, but it was totally fine!  The streets were well lit with cranes with spotlights so the floats could see to maneuver.

The Wisconsin float was the first one we saw.  No one else was taking pictures so we weren't sure if that was allowed.  We took these two on the sly.

Then we figured out that taking pictures was allowed so we went to town!  The tops of the tall floats weren't lifted to an upright position until they were on the main street.  During the actual parade we saw some floats that were three or four stories tall.

The parade looks cool on television, but seeing the floats up close is totally different.  It really is amazing.
And really, really delicious smelling. 

I was ridiculously excited to see everything up close. 

A nice tipsy man took this photo for us:

The "state fair" float by Discover

Many floats used crushed flower petals (the orange and white stripes, for example), not just whole flowers, to decorate.

I know this is a lot of pictures, but I seriously could not get over how beautiful all the flowers were!

This boat float was huge.  The tire alone was taller than T.

I wish we could have seen this guy being lifted upright.

Some detail work from the same Indian float.  That's corn husks and different beans ever so carefully arranged.  Everything on all the floats looked this cool close up.  That's a lot of work and patience!

The Dole Paradise float was amazing.

I'm Reagan-ing!

True story: While we were in front of the Reagan float a mom and her young daughter walked by.
Mom: Ahhh, the Reagan era.  Those were the good days.
Girl: What?
Mom: Of course, I'm kidding.  We're the only Democrats in Pasadena.

This made me giggle because most of the time I feel like the only Republican in our area.

All the volunteers wore white jumpsuits drove white Vespas.

This float kind of creeped me out.  But look at the "safety measures" of chairs and seat belts.  The float is only going 3mph and the seats are in the center on the lowest level - are seat belts really necessary? 

Some of the floats were still being worked on.  Also, note that "Save the Children" is a registered trademark.  I mean I applaud the attention to detail, but really?...

Why, yes, that is Jesus made out of flowers.  I didn't even know what to say.   I definitely didn't know what to say when we saw the float during the actual parade and there was a man dressed as Jesus on the float.

Right after the Jesus float was this incredible train float:

The train float after the Jesus float made me think of the time I was with nephew D (age 4 at the time) looking at a picture of Jesus with children.
S: What do you think Jesus is telling the kids?
D: Ummm.... TRAINS!!!

The flowers were incredibly gorgeous.  I wanted to lie down on them.  Except there was a strong police presence and I probably would have been arrested.  And T said he wouldn't bail me out.

So we rang in the New Year on Orange Grove Ave checking out the floats.  Then we went home and slept for four hours.  We had to get up at five a.m. to head back out to Pasadena for the actual parade.  Stay tuned for Part Two!