roses

Dave and I went up to Pasadena the day before the rose bowl and rose parade. Our first stop was the rose palace -- a huge warehouse where floats are built and then stored until the parade. As we passed through late in the afternoon on New Year's Eve the floats were all complete of course and the room smelled like heaven. I never appreciated how beautiful and fresh those floats are. They are each filled with 1000's of perfect flowers of all kinds. It was quite a sight to behold and viewing them up close was one of the highlights of our trip.

my favorite float -- ronald mc donald house

we talked to a few of the people who helped make this float by odd fellows and rebekahs -- all 3 of them traveled across the country and stayed all week to work on the float. from them we learned a lot about the process of making the floats. It was fascinating. Did you know every bit of the float is covered with some kind of plant. Sea weed dried/crushed grain are some of the things that can make the grey and brown colors. Flowers are sometimes peeled petal by petal and then placed on certain parts, such as the birds chest, to give a layered effect.


best looking back side of a float is this one.

lead float and also the theme of the parade this year.

the other lead float. All of the red on his shirt and hat are red roses perfectly in bloom!


These are the parade tickets we picked up and later delivered to somebody else. (it was about $1000 worth of parade tickets)


this is the city hall for pasadena. quite a beautiful building.


We got up early and went down to the parade route. We found a parking spot on a side street and walked about 10 minutes to the route, arriving around 7am. There are lots of crazys who camp out all night to get a front row seat but we were perfectly happy arriving in time to get a decent seat and see it all. The parade route is 5.5 miles long. we were at about 2.5 miles where we viewed the parade.





Here are the Oregon cheerleaders. Some Buckeye fan - a complete stranger - ended up watching the parade with Dave and I. Consequently, he stood between dave and I and talked to us and yelled in my ear for most of the parade. He especially loved the oregon cheerleaders. He turned to dave and asked for high five. Dave thought this was a touch tactless since I was right there! Later at the football game I overheard the guys behind us saying, "man, I almost became an oregon fan when I saw their cheerleaders !"



We are excited to take the kids up to the parade next year now that we know where to go and how fun it is. I think they will love it!