When we were looking for things to do on New Year's day, we found that many things we wanted were closed for the holiday. So I did an internet search and up came the Rose Bowl parade. And better yet - you could get seats to sit in one of the grandstands so that you could have an assigned seat to watch the parade. It was perfect. Our family loves watching the parade on TV each year, so we were excited to have a chance to see it in person.
Along with our seats, we had parking passes so we could park right behind our stands. It was so easy. It was also freezing. After being in 80-90 degree humid heat for 10 days, we suddenly were in 40 degree weather. Those warm clothes we packed came in handy.
We had to be in our seats around 7:30 and the parade came past us starting around 8:45. We had a GREAT time. The parade was a lot of fun and because I picked a grand stand (on purpose) next to the parents of the kids in the bands, all the bands played when they got to us.
It started to warm up as the parade was ending, and we had tickets to see the floats up close. We wanted Finley to be able to see all the flowers and how the floats were put together, but all of us ended up enjoying seeing this. It is amazing detail and tons of work. They told us that most floats take 10 hours a day for 10 days and 60 workers PER FLOAT to put together. There are a lot of rules - everything has to be natural or covered in a natural element. They were beautiful.
This was our entire day. We did stop at the La Brea Tar Pits before heading to San Diego. The museum wasn't open, but you could walk around the grounds and see the actual pits. This was what Mat wanted to do. And it was.......not that interesting. :) Natural tar as seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. Over the centuries the bones of animals trapped in the tar have been discovered.
After this - we were exhausted so we got some dinner and started our 2 hour drive to San Diego, where we were actually staying. We picked a condo in Del Mar - right down the street from where we used to live. Mat and I lived in San Diego for 3 1/2 years. Arlington was born there. We decided to break up the long flight home by spending 4 whole days in San Diego before heading back home.
Enjoy the pictures
Arlington and her faces. We had our beach towels in the car for a little extra warmth.
Our grandstands
The floats
Downtown Abbey float - the lady who plays Lady Grantham was on there
All the base drums in all the bands had these on their drums:
This is Ty Pennington from TLC
Finley wanted me to take this picture to show her horse riding instructor. Tiny horse
Our seats were on Pasadena City College property. The campus is quite beautiful.
Awesome sign! We got one for Finley
floats up close.
The words were made from berries
This was one of the best floats. Amazing amount of flowers. And the feet were made out of oranges
La Brea Tar Pits
1 comment:
Too bad you couldn't go into the tar pits museum. It is pretty cool seeing the bones of all the different species they have found in there. And it puts all those weird little seeps of tar in the lawn/park into better perspective. I liked to go back when we lived in Pasadena.
Michelle
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