don't rain on my parade!!

Every since I can remember I watched the Rose Bowl Parade on television New Year's Day. This year I was very excited to go to the parade because it is held in Pasadena--where I live! I flew back to Pasadena on the 31st. As my plane was descending in the LA area, the pilot announced the weather as 55 degrees and rain. I was sitting in an aisle seat and thought the pilot was joking--it doesn't rain in LA! After three weeks on the East Coast I was dreaming of walking around in my flip flops in sunshine. It was raining the 31st and did not stop. I woke up at 6am on the 2nd dressed in the most rain-proof clothes I have out here (not much...I don't even have an umbrella!). I talked with the friends I was going with and we were all still game--determined the parade would be fun in the rain! Starting at 7am we stood on Colorado Blvd across from the Super Target waiting for the parade to begin. We were about 1/5th into the parade route so we didn't see the parade until 8:30am even though it started at 8am. The floats were breathtaking--made with all natural ingrediants. The bands were fun to listen to and awesome to see most of the country and various parts of the world represented.
Then the rain started coming down hard. And harder. And harder. 3 hours into the parade we had stopped chatting, stopped taking pictures, and stopped being dry at all. Every inch of our bodies were sopping wet. I stood in the gutter as my feet were completly covered in rushing water--the water covering made my feet warmer. The saddest part about the rain was watching the flag girls. Some groups only had on leotards and no umbrellas. Some girls were diligently marching along forcing a smile as they cried in the rain. The entire parade route was 5 miles long--I don't know how they made it all the way! The first time in 51 years that it had rained on the Rose Parade. All in all I'm glad I went, it was a lot of fun--although I'm not going next year unless it is warm and sunny! Major, major props to all those who marched in the Rose Parade
this year!
Part of the group that went--before the parade started
Look at the amazing detail on the floats--absolutely beautiful! This was the "Rain Bird" float-hehe very appropriate

Notice that the rain is completely covering our feet.

Towards the end some of the floats started to break down--first one: The Disney float!


I don't this the picture capture how wet and cold it was--but here is sophie and I--I couldn't move to push the hair out of my face.