Rose Parade Floats!

Today we went to see the Rose Parade floats. Every year the parade floats are parked near the Rose Bowl and are on display for a day or two before they are torn down. A local radio station was giving away tickets to view them so Rick emailed the station and we won 2 tickets! Rick's mom went with us and we were able to get in 2 hours ahead of general public viewing because seniors and special needs are able to get in early. I woke up the kids at 5:30AM, and got Caroline dressed. As soon as I was done, she had a frowny face, went over to her window, lifted the shade and with her hands on her dinky little hips declared, "It's still DARK out, Mommy!" She was less than amused about this fact.

We loaded up at 6:00 and arrived in Pasadena around 7:15, met Rick's mom (who LOVES her little portable GPS thingy (technical term) that tells you when to turn. She and I have joked that we would have trouble finding our way out of a paper bag. Then we loaded on to a special shuttle bus to take us to the viewing area.

Later, we went to lunch. Again, checking on the GPS thingy, we located a nice Italian restaurant, clicked on it and followed the ever-so-nice-but-slightly-annoying voice commands and found the restaurant. Parked along the street and put coins into the meter (yes, you know where this is going!) We had one hour of time. We had a very nice lunch and the restaurant definitely served Italian-sized portions. Those of you who grew up with Italian grandmothers are nodding your heads right now, right? I know you are. We walked back to the cars and I noticed a parking lot enforcement officer on bicycle heading down the direction of our cars. I pointed her out to Rick and he said that I should have 3 more minutes on the meter. Then I noticed she was in front of my car. I started jogging down the street, kids running after me. I remembered I had my lock-unlock-door opener-thingy (technical terms again, sorry to confuse the non-techy people) and opened the slider on the van. I guess that was enough to tell the officer that I was on my way and she left without giving me a ticket. Whew!!!

Anyway, the floats were gorgeous and amazing and...BIG! The details were so clever. It's amazing what you don't see on TV. They arrange flowers, fruit, vegetables, seaweed, and other things in such a way that you don't notice what it is, you just know it's beautiful. I took 138 pictures in all, but I cannot post them all here. Sorry, I'm just not that patient. I've loaded all the pictures on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/thaviara/RoseParadeFloats2009#

Here are a few with some incredible detail:

Peter, Rick, Caroline, Yumiko, and Grandma

King Arthur

Detail under King Arthur's train. Apples, pomegranites, broccoflower, grapes

This gentleman was kind enough to invite Caroline behind the barricade. Very cool

In front of the Alice in Wonderland float.

Catching a wave. The dog in the picture is trying to get the steak off the BBQ. Notice the dolphins in the picture too!

Details on the bottom of the above float. The anemones are mums and yellow peppers.

China Airlines always has a stunner of a float and this year was no exception.

Details on the bottom of the Country Fair float.

One of the masks on a float with an Alaskan theme. The green areas are peas. The red is cranberries.

More of the Alaska themed float. This walrus was so detailed.

This elephant was on The Bollywood float. Notice the blanket over his back.

This is the blanket from the side.This is the detail. Purple and fuchia flower petals, red roses, oranges and kumquats make up the design.

I want this in my backyard! It's about 4 feet across.

Have a wonderful New Year everyone!