Happy 2008

Now that we are already into 2008 guess it's time to write about our New Years.

We had a quiet New Years Eve at home with the family. This is typically how we spend New Years Eve. Greg was busy prospecting on My Simms, Tom watching a football game and Evelyn and I played War and a few games of Sorry. Evelyn was not even sorry that she whopped me at Sorry. But I did beat her in War.

Shortly before 9 pm we switched off the Wii and landed on ESPN. We saw the ball drop in Times Square and celebrated a New York New Years Eve. Then, the anticipation was on waiting to watch what's his name jump the length of a football field on his motorcycle at the Rio in Las Vegas. After patiently waiting through commercials, etc... finally...... the bike was revved up and what's his name gained speed of 90 mph, was up the ramp..........over the field........and safely landing on the landing, making the Worlds Record. Only to try to outdo this record and jump again to land in the exact spot. Boy, that was pretty exciting.

After all that, we all went to bed.......Why so early??? Well, we had to be up early to do something fun and exciting and that the rest of my family had never done before. We were going to.................

ready............

Going to the Rose Parade on New Years Day. I had done this with my family many times as a kid. Even stayed over one night with my Girl Scout troop. So, a few days before I decided I was going to the parade. Evelyn jumped on board right away and the guys decided to go too. I did some research, got info from the expert, my dad, and planned out our day as much as I could.



We left home about 6:50 am. I think we saw maybe 3 cars on the 5. We buzzed up to Pasadena and arrived in about an hour. Found an awesome place to park and walked about 10 minutes on Colorado Blvd towards the parade route. Headed North on Sierra Madre, where the parade makes a turn, and found the most ideal spot we could. Talk about mobs of people, but we got a good spot. We had brought 2 chairs, a beach towel and a backpack with water and snacks, and of course, the camera. Wanted to travel light as we did not know what to expect.


Here is the 5 freeway south. You never see it like this at 7am on a Tuesday morning.
Driving by Angel Stadium on the left. Home of the World Champion Angels!
The Honda Center, formally known as the Pond. Home of the Stanley Cup winners ~ The Mighty Ducks or also known as the Anaheim Ducks.
A view of the mountains on a beautiful clear morning. And once again, no cars!
We are almost there! And again, hardly any cars on the freeway.

After we staked our spot of parade real estate, the kids and I headed out to find bathrooms. Waited in line for almost 45 minutes for the lovely porta potties. yeck!! Luckily we found Tom again as mobs of people had since filled in our spot along the parade route.


Mobs of people up and down Sierra Madre Blvd. We were lucky and got a great spot not to far back from the street.

After the motocycle police drove by, the Marines proudly carried our beautiful American Flag
After the Marines, the boy souts and girl scouts carried flags of all the countries.

The parade passed by us around 9:30. Evelyn and I took photos of each and every entry. All the floats, bands, horses, you name it. We captured it with a photo. 100 plus photos I am sure. It is just amazing seeing the floats up close. They are huge! Some of my favorites: (note: I could usually get a better picture of the floats after they had passed me so that is why some are the back view)

The circus train. I remember going to a circus parade when I was a kid. One Christmas my brother got a wooden circus train.
Remember Bob from Seasme Street? Here he is!
Midevil Time Knights. The horses and costumes are spectacular.
The Farmers Insurance float. Have to put a plug in here for my employer. It was a huge float and there were Indian dancers before the float.
The fire wagons pulled by beautiful horses. Before the old wagons, were fire fighters riding on horses.

Beijing Olympics float. There were acrobats and jugglers on the float and dancers walking before the float.
Go Dodgers!Celebrating their 50 years.
Yep, that's Steve Gravey, third from the right. I don't know who the other players are. Steve Garvey was a Dodger when we would go watch the Dodgers play when we were kids.
Go USC!!
Whoo-Hoo! Stanley Cup winners ~ The Mighty Ducks. The player is May and he is riding on the float for the City of Anaheim.

The Nativity on the Lutheran Leagues' float. "Joy to the world, the Lord has come" was the theme of the float.
My favorite horses, Clydesdales, pulling the City of St. Louis float "The Lewis & Clark Expedition"
Look at this guy riding this bike. Looks hard but would be fun to try. Another beautiful float from the city of Sierra Madre.

When the parade was over we once again joined the mobs of walking people and began the short trek back to the car. Headed towards the freeway, got right on and headed on home. Really no traffic at all.

We pulled through the drive through of In-n-Out in Foothill Ranch and got our lunch and were home by 1 pm just in time to click on the tv and start the football games.

Evelyn and I finished taking down the tree and boxing up the rest of the Christmas decorations. Kids and I went on a bike ride. Evelyn and I saw Water Horse while the guys watched football. Then I fell into bed exhausted around 8 pm.

This was a great day and a great way to start off the New Year. Can't wait to go to the parade again next year. Evelyn and I are going and everyone is welcome to tag along!

Happy 2008