Rose Parade Floats (Part1)

If you look close, you can see the dog jumping into the water after his toy.

Growing up in So. Cal, it is tradition to watch the Rose Parade on New Year's Morning. I've never been in person, maybe one day we'll all go. They make it so easy, you can buy tickets to sit in the grandstands for $65 each. That is what I would do. No camping out on the parade route for me. It is about an hour and 15 minutes from our home. I've been once before to see the floats after the parade. They are so beautiful in person. Bigger, brighter, and more detailed than you can see on TV.

They are only allowed to use natural substances on the floats. Flowers, rice, grain, seaweed, bark, fruits and vegetables, etc. The floats are really detailed.

Here is a mass of flowers that was on the base of one of the floats. Gorgeous...a new screen saver for me!

This year it wasn't very crowded. There was the threat of rain, but the crowd was still pretty good. This is one of my favorite floats.

The Handsome Husband enjoying himself.

I love the use of Pampas grass on the shins of the horses.

This was such a cute little castle. I wish the colors were as vivid on camera as in person.

I love the rose topiaries and the shutters.

This was a massive float. I loved the action of the mustang horses. You could just hear them thundering through the prairie.

I will post more floats tomorrow. There were so many great ones this year.

A interesting story...

The floats are lined up along two major streets in Pasadena. There is parking all along neighborhood streets. As we were looking for spots, people were holding up signs, charging $20 to park in their driveway or on their lawn. We came across a 15 ish girl with a flag and she said parking was only $10 in this lot. We pulled in, parked our car and headed out to the float sight. Two hours later we returned to our car. There were policemen everywhere. It seems a guy decided to take the gates of their hinges and charge admission to park in this Edison lot. He had no permission to do so. What's funny is he gave us a stub like you get when you park your car in lots and told us to lock up. The police arrested him and had to wait at the lot until everyone returned for their car. For some reason I took a picture of our car parked in the lot before we headed off to see the floats. I got a picture of one of the guys, but I don't know if it was the master mind. The police said he pulled some neighborhood people to work for him at $15 an hour. There seems to be more and more con men out there these days. Be careful!