Rose Parade 2016

Buses leave at 4:50 AM sharp - seriously! Even though we have reserved seats along the Rose Parade route, time apparently needs to be allotted for unusually heavy traffic, parking this 45 foot long behemoth, and then navigating the dense crowds on foot just to get to those reserved seats. It was cold on our arrival, but we were pleasantly surprised by the bus parking arrangements. After cooling our heels in the bus for a bit (it was much warmer in the bus than sitting on the metal bleacher seats) we had maybe a block and a half walk to our reserved bleacher section.

While the Woman wasn’t quite thrilled about the idea, our section of bleacher was smack in the middle of a freeway overpass bridge – not near it or next to it, but on the bridge pretty much in the center. As the bleachers filled up with people, and especially when the floats crossed in front of us, the Woman would hold her breath praying that the weight limits on the bridge were sufficient. That was the bad news – the good was that because the bridge was narrow they only had 10 rows of seats – off the bridge the bleacher sections reached up 20 rows and more! So we had less densely filled stands and were much closer to the floats when they squeezed by us on the bridge – bonus!

The parade was scheduled to start at 8 AM, and since we were only a couple blocks from the starting point, the front of the parade reached us by about 8:10. After only about an hour of wait time the thrilling flyover happened to everyone’s surprise. Nobody heard it coming, which makes sense – a Northrup Grumman B-2 Stealth Bomber shouldn’t make any noise if I understand the definition of “stealth” correctly. Regardless, it was my first and maybe last chance to actually see a B-2 in flight. Scuttlebutt in the stands suggested that this curiosity was flown here from active duty in the Middle East just for the Rose Parade. I have no idea whether that was true or not, and can’t assume the information was accurate. You know how seniors tend to know everything and are more than willing to share that knowledge with all that will listen.

The parade was spectacular! Knowing what we do now, as each float passed we tried to imagine what organic material was used in its construction. There were 44 floats entered in the Rose Parade, and each one was stunning. There wasn’t a single one that we didn’t enjoy.

We recognized all the equestrian entries as well from our attendance at Equest Fest. I didn’t realize at the time we attended this event that we were getting a pre-screening of all 19 of the equestrian entries in the Rose Parade. But it wasn’t a spoiler – it totally enhanced the experience. You only see a few seconds of these fantastic crews as they scoot by during the parade – we actually got to see each one of them perform a complete routine during the Equest Fest, so seeing them scoot by took on that much more meaning.

I forgot to mention earlier that we also had attended Band Fest. There are three sessions of Band Fest and we got to attend one. They grouped 6 of the 18 bands entered in the Rose Parade into one of the Band Fest session. We were lucky enough to get the one session where the international band entries were performing – the band from Mexico and the one from Japan. As with the equestrian entries, the amount you can experience during the actual parade is limited – brief snippets, and even then you are probably only hearing the horns, or the clarinets – not the whole band playing. At Band Fest, each of the 6 bands we saw did about 20 minutes of performing all of it being the music they would be playing on the parade route. It was totally cool hearing the bands perform in a stationary setting – we had seats for the Band Fest that were pretty much spot on center, so we heard the bands as they were supposed to be heard. It made seeing the again in the parade so much more enjoyable.

But we have to admit that we got just a bit excited when we saw that the float that we had helped build was awarded the Sweepstakes Trophy as the most beautiful float in the parade with outstanding floral presentation and design. Even when we were working on the float we could tell it was something special. But when we saw it on the parade route with the dragon spitting fire balls all over the place, it really made us feel special.

The approximate two hours of the parade seemed to just fly by. We had been warned that once you were in your bleacher you were pretty much locked in for the duration, but it seemed to us like it was pretty much a flash and it was over. All the warnings about not drinking anything in the morning because you could not count on there being a porta-potty (we saw what must have been at least hour long lines for them!) were unnecessary. It all went too fast and virtually no discomfort.

While we watched the parade, a skywriting plane spit out this message that fit well with the southern California vibe. It got a mixed reaction from the heavily senior crowd in the stands, but we enjoyed it immensely!

I was surprised how quickly we were back to Colectiva. Since we were only about 2 blocks from the start of the parade, we were among the first to leave. While I expected quite the ordeal, it was maybe 20 minutes after we left the parade route that the buses were allowed to leave the parking lot. Maybe 3 blocks from our lot was an HOV entrance to I-210, and we were pretty much whisked back to the park to watch Stanford crush the Hawks on a big screen, next to the open bar. How could a day get any better?

Talk to you soon!