The Parade

So my boss had planned all of this stuff for the week of the rose parade and then forgot to mention that she had expected me to go to a bunch of different functions. I was able to go to the Rose Parade Gala which was amazing. I had the opportunity to get all dressed up (which is fun, but I am glad I do not have to do it all that often) and go out for a fun evening. Then on Saturday I went back down to Pasadena and enjoyed the parade from the grandstands. I am so grateful that I did not have to sleep in the streets like so many other thousands of people did. It was CRAZY! The parade was another awesome experience!

This was the theme of the 2011 Rose Parade.

This is the mass herds of people who travelled from all over the world to be there. I was amazed at the people from different states and countries who came just for the Rose Parade (and probably the Rose Bowl). I never realized what a huge world wide event this was before. Very cool!

Me all bundled up because it was super cold!! Thankfully it started to warm up when the sun came up, but there was a couple of hours when I didn't think I would make it. Luckily my grandstand seat was at the top so I was able to stand and move around when it got really cold.

A stealth flew over the grounds to open the ceremonies. It was very loud!

The police escort clearing the streets for the floats to come through.

The Good Year Blimp-always heard about it, but never seen one before.

The Marine Corp band. I do so love men in uniform :)

This is the float that we worked on. It one the Theme award which means it captured the essence of the theme of the parade the best. Our group leaders were very excited. You can see Victor he is the first rider on the right. If you look closely you can also see the seeds I put on the top of the kite on the left and the purple flowers on the right! Some of Barb's yellow flowers are also on the right, the red flowers are covered by part of float so you can't really see that.

Victor is the guy and the one waving. He was so excited to ride the float! After two transplants and five years of treatment I am glad he got this fun treat!

These are the floragraphs on the left side of the float. Each picture is of a donor who was able to donate cause they had passed away. There were 60 pictures done and some of the memebers of the families of those donors were able to attend the parade. All the pictures were done in completely natural substances. They were so beautiful and many tears were shed over the pictures.

The float of one of the teams in the Rose Bowl.

The other team in the Rose Bowl.

The real heroes of the Rose Parade-the poop scoopers. They got more cheers than most of the floats.

The next are just a couple of pictures of my favorite floats. Of course I took like 200 pics so I only posted a few. This float was done in celebration of the 30 year anniversary of Pac-Man. SO AWESOME!

I loved the fire breathing effects.

I loved the bulldozer floats-thought Dad would like them to. I especially like the smiley faces.

The freeway was completely shut down for the Rose Parade. I like the picture of the mass herd of people crossing over the freeway pass. This was at the end of the parade.

Thanks to some great words of wisdom I brought a book to wait out the crazy mad crush of people all in a hurry to get home. I kicked it in the bleachers reading for about an hour after the parade ended and had no problem getting home. Which is good because traffic really annoys and frustrates me. The book was really good to!