January 27, 2010

Rose Parade 2010: A Cut Above the Rest

Don't you hate when life gets in the way of things you really wanted to do? I swear that's how this last week has been. Which would be why this post in almost a week late. Oops.

Anyways, back to the Rose Parade!

Early New Year's morning my husband, my best friend, and I got up at the crack of dawn to steak out a spot behind some sleeping campers on the parade route. It's the way I've done it almost every year of my life, and I wouldn't change it for the world.

About 2 hours after we found our spot, the floats started creeping up to the starting point. We were lucky enough to have the Jack in the Box float in front of us this year!( I hate getting floats that have a really annoying song stuck in front of us, because they play the song the whole hour it's sitting waiting for the parade to start! I have some songs that will forever remind me of a float because of that reason.) The Jack float was great because it had really upbeat music and the dancers were going crazy! The drummers played their own tunes a few times which made for some variety as well. I loved all the colors too!
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Right before the parade started, Captain Sully was driven by to catch up to his car. You can all laugh at me because the best picture I got of him is completely out of focus. But at least he's smiling! :)

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Then it was time for the parade to start!!!

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Jack Hanna was there as usual.

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As well as the Royal Court.

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Bill Bogard, the Mayor of Pasadena, was all smiles!

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The China float was beautiful! It was fun to see all the sites of China made into a float right after my parent's trip to China (maybe I should have my dad do a guest post!)

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A friend of the family was sitting across the street from us. They were giving candy to the people all around them, and sometimes even the people on the float! I don't know if Subway would be thrilled about the chocolate...

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Shout out to my fellow swimmers! Michael Phelps!

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I love ASIMO! And I love seeing how Honda puts him on their float every year!
(If you're ever at Disneyland, go to Inoventions and watch his show! I have a soft spot for cute robots apparently...)

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There was a band from South America that I just loved. They had been a military style band when they first started, then they found their current style! Their outfits were super colorful and they looked like they were having fun!

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It makes me laugh how every year the drums get a cover that says "this year's theme... with music!", even it makes no sense.

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The cutest thing all day had to be the snowboarding dogs. OMG so precious!!!!

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Cal Poly!!!!

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I have no clue who he is, but I liked this picture. Can someone help me out with a name?

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This equestrian group got the humor award from me. Fairies riding horses? SO RANDOM!

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"The Scissored Wizard"

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Favorite photo of the day:

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Believe it or not, this is a full size horse! It's not a pony!

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These little girls were adorable.

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The Ms. Wheelchair's of America!

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Kilts!

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The Boy Scouts were celebrating one of their anniversaries. They had a ton of boy scouts marching in the parade. Each one carried a different badge they could earn! I loved it!

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Zip line! Takes me back to my days working at camp....

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Like I said in my last post, everything on a float gets covered by something natural. The Boy Scouts took it one step further. The fish hanging off of one of their backpacks was made of of leaves! So cool!

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Well, I hope you enjoyed a little glimpse into one of my favorite pastimes!

Got any questions about the parade? I'd love to see if I can answer them!

Rose Parade 2010: Float Decorating

I'm going to backtrack a bit and take us back to New Years!
If you know me you know that every New Years of my entire life (and the one when I was still in my mom's tummy!) has been spent on the Rose Parade route. It's one of those crazy traditions that comes from growing up in Pasadena. It's such a big tradition for me in fact, that my husband proposed to me on the route (the one and only year I've ever slept out there! Watch the Video). Now that we're married we've started our own new tradition of going to see the floats being decorated before the day of the parade. It's fun to get to see the floats coming together and smell all the fresh flowers! O, and the glue and all the dried stuff.

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All the floats have to bend down to fit under a bridge at the end of the route. It's always fascinating to see how they get them to bend!

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Glue!!!

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When I was a kid I'd help my dad's company decorate their float. Since I was so little they wouldn't let me do any of the cool stuff. Instead they would hand me dried flowers and I'd have to cut all the petals off so they could glue them on later. Ahh, the memories!

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After the first building we went to the "Expo Village" and saw a little juggling show put on by a group promoting the Renaissance Pleasure Fair. They were very good!

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Then we visited the tent with the rest of the floats, as well as the Tournament Cars! We've always gone so late that we never get to see the cars. This year we went the first day we could and the cars were in the middle of being decorated.

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Shout out to Ashlee & Jeanette! Your float was so cute!

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Rose Parade floats have to be completely covered in flowers or other natural things (seeds, bark, petals, etc.). Every single last inch. So the seats the float riders sit in are even covered. I'm not sure that would be comfortable...

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I just love that the bird's feathers are made of leaves covered in brown.. stuff.

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Floragraphs are cool too :)

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This is the giant rose they put on the Norton Simon Museum. If you've watched the parade on TV then you've seen this rose. They re-use the same one every year.

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And last but not least, here's a little display they had on how they build the float. i thought it was really cool!

Steps

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Tomorrow I'll have the actual parade! It's a long post so I hope you're ready!