1-01-2010

Happy New Year...Got up at 4:00am and went down for our continental breakfast before boarding the buses at 5:45am. Three buses were headed for Downtown Pasadena and we tried for some more sleep but the driver kept jerking the bus so much that I was nervous. As we got close, overhead was a Goodyear blimp, welcoming us to the Rose Parade. The traffic was a total mess but the poor bus driver found our parking spot which was sweet. The bus along with 10-15 other buses, parked in a Ralph's parking lot right behind our assigned seats.

We sat down in the crowed stands and I noticed a guy behind me that looked familiar. It was Mr. Gast, former principle of Pleasant High School. Four seats beside of me were empty until our friends from Hicksville sat down. It seemed like we just kept running into them. Alice says it's Karma.

The view of the San Gabriel Mountains from our seats was wonderful and we had the sun to our backs. The 2010 Rose Parade kicked off and all Alice and I could say was, "here we are in person". Our seats were only ten minutes into the five mile parade route so everything we saw was fresh and energetic. It was so neat with thousands of people lined up and down the street. Many camped overnight to save their spots for the parade and noticing so many winter coats, it must have gotten cold for those warm weather people.

After the parade the tour company took us to lunch at Hamlets, a real fancy hamburger restaurant, then to the Post Float Viewing. All the floats from the parade were parked in a city park for viewing. It was very, very crowded there but we had two hours to photograph and observe all the details of the floats. The Rose Bowl Game was now being played but that wasn't why we were in California. Not wanting to miss the scores, I had Nissa and Joe text me updates on the cell phone. Arriving back at the hotel later, we got to watch the last eleven minutes of the game. The Ohio State Buckeyes beat the Oregon Ducks 26 to 17!! What a party atmosphere.