I Love a Parade!

Sarah and I decided to attend the Rose Bowl Parade in person this year since neither of us had done this before.  Here are some pictures of various floats we saw:

Miniature horses

Fantastic floral arrangement I

Eclectic Trader Joes float

Dream machine...roses go in, ideas come out

Fantastic floral arrangement II

Fire breathing Chinese dragon

Kenny G on the Honda float

Animated float

Here are a few observations from the parade:

1. We did the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus package where you get driven up in a charter bus, park near the grandstand, and your seats are included.  I would highly recommend this--not too much more expensive than just buying seats, and you are spared the aggravation of driving through the hordes of people, finding parking, etc.
2. There were a lot of people before the parade wandering around with various religious-themed signs.  Also a lot of people with carts selling various knickknacks.
3. Buying the program is a good idea.
4. It definitely pays to think ahead about where your seats are going to be (we didn't do this, just got lucky.) We were sitting in a very comfortable partially shaded area with the sun behind us, not too cool and not too hot. The people across the street from us had the sun shining basically directly into their eyes for the entire 2-1/2 hours.
5. The sweet spot for kids is probably around ages 6-8.  Any younger and they won't be able to sit that long without getting wiggly and annoying the people around them.  Any older and they will spend the entire time playing handheld video games as did the kid sitting right in front of us.  Why pay $55 bucks for your kid to play video games?
6. For those sitting towards the end of the parade route, there is plenty of opportunity to buy food from local vendors before the parade reaches your area, so you don't have to bring your own.
7. It is definitely more comfortable to watch the parade at home rather than sit on a crowded, unyielding metal bench. But the floats are a lot cooler in real life than on TV.

All in all, I'd give this experience a high rating, and I'd definitely recommend it to others.