Rose Parade 2014

New thing today, attended and saw the 2014 Tournament of Roses Parade.

This is not my first Rose Parade, but this is a first in being able to see it. Let me explain. When I was a kid (guessing between 7-9 years old), we went. It was miserable. It was cold, crowded, and being a kid, we weren't in the front so I pretty much didn't see anything. My family was excited and swore I would enjoy it, but I didn't. My view, pretty much consisted of something like this - which is what part of the experience was this year. When I was a kid, it was the view of a bunch of backs, waists, pants. It was freezing cold. I heard music once in awhile, and I was pretty much bored out of my mind. It was miserable. Here is what it probably looks like to a kid not in the front of the parade.



THIS year, we had a lot of fun. Mainly the fun part came from the family time. We were going because a cousin was going to be dancing and be part of the KC and the Sunshine Band and the Stella Rosa float. All of us weren't really wanting to go, but if we were going to go, this was the best year to go. How often is a relative in the parade anyway?

Preparation - mom suggested bringing step ladders (brilliant) and we dressed prepared for freezing cold morning, with layers as it may warm it. The weather turned out awesome, and we had our jackets off in the first hour or so standing outside. I think the average temperature was like 65-75 that morning :) Beautiful!

So, early morning driving in, the excitement mounted as we saw grandstands and traffic. The freeways were blocked off with all sorts of busses and horse trailers. We saw some people prepping and a bunch of traffic. Mom knows the back roads and she works in Pasadena, so we got lucky, were able to park in her office building, and walk over to the parade a few blocks away.

We ended up setting up our viewing area by Colorado and Los Robles, not far from the beginning of the parade, so a lot of the people in the parade were in good spirits and energetic on and around the floats :)

Waiting. There's a lot of waiting around. This guy was our favorite. He was making bacon wrapped hot dogs with onions and peppers. Delicious! Sister and I got some and it made our morning delicious!

Perspective - how far we were from the floats, and a view of the crowd.




The cute floats we saw - a little camera zoom.

The Budweiser Clydesdale horses!!!!
*On the side, I enjoyed cheering for the dressed in white popper scooper teams following all the horse teams. There's a small group that cheers for them throughout the parade, so I joined and they are our unsung heroes!

Surprising highlight - the music!!!! Watching it live, I really really enjoyed whenever we managed to get the bands to play in our area. I'm not a marching band or parade fan, but the live music - pretty awesome and joyful. It was such a nice highlight and so awesome live. It helped that the Asian marching band played Gangnam Style and were dancing a bit along. Yeay! The music does not translate over the TV well at all. Watching it on TV, I'm mainly annoyed at the band sections, but live, the bands were enjoyable.

Another highlight - the smell!!!! These are only things you can get live, but it smelled amazing :) So many fresh flowers! Probably will drive you nuts if you have allergies, but smells pretty great. 

People watching! There was this guy. He was either wearing a hearing aid, or he was a cop. I'm pretty sure he was a cop or security. The way he carried himself was just too serious. 

Then there's this lady. lol. 

Anyway here is my BEST shot of the float my cousin was dancing beside. Even though we were on step ladders and could see above the crowd, I still barely got a glimpse of her. 

We left early a few floats after my cousin's float. We were glad because we did not want to get stuck in the after parade traffic. Also we were all a little done. Not super exciting or interesting watching the parade in the first place.

Conclusion - best place to still "SEE" the Rose Parade is on TV! I love the commentary descriptions, the sitting cozy at home, the close-ups, the panning camera and such. So much more convenient and makes you appreciate the floats better.

Live - it was a lot of fun, because we had good attitude, good weather and lucky with getting a good viewing spot. Plus it was lucky that everyone in our family was in a good mood and we were all having a good time together. It could easily turn pain in the ass if any of these factors were off. We hung out after the parade, and the good times continued :) Overall I think we just enjoyed our time together more than the actual parade itself, but it was an event to attend!

So Cheers and congrats to my cousin! She's featured ON TV and she was actually in quite a few of the clips, YouTube videos and such. This might be the best one. I won't say who she is, but we're proud of her and happy she got to be in such a cool event. Plus I'm glad the weather was good for her too! I hope she had a blast. We did :)

Happy New Year folks!