The 130th Tournament of Roses Parade

As bucket lists go this was my wife's dream. Like many of those who had been watching this yearly spectacle, my wife had been wishing that one day, perhaps, she will get to witness it live. So together with close to a million others we descended upon the City of Los Angeles just a day or so before the New Year. Included with the temporary influx are those whose main purpose is to be at the much awaited college Rose Ball game between the Washington Huskies and Ohio State Buckeyes the following day on Jan. 2, 2019,  that the 130th Rose Parade (also known as The Tournament of Roses) helps to usher in.

The tour that we were part of celebrated a New Year's Gala the evening of the 31st of December 2018. The celebration went by New York time, which was 9:00 p.m. California time, so we can get enough sleep before the parade the following morning. By the way, if January 1st falls on a Sunday the parade will have  been held the following day as set by  the parade committee rules that prohibits the parade to take place on a Sunday. This year was the parade's 130-year anniversary.

The LA Grand Hotel where we stayed opened its breakfast hall at 4:00 in the morning  to the 280 people who were part of this tour (six coaches in all). The buses had to leave at 6:00 a.m. to get to the designated parking lots half an hour away in Pasadena. It was still a  brisk walk from the parking area in 45 degree (F) morning weather to get to the designated viewing stands and onto our assigned bench seats. This was itself a spectacle indeed but the following day we will get to see the floats up close at a park designated to display them so that we can literally "smell the roses".

We thought we were early. The viewing stands were already 80% filled by the time we got there. Note: The parade route is about 5 miles long so we were merely  a very thin slice of it.

This year's   parade was sponsored by Honda. As we can imagine, the cost for the parade is something only deep pocket corporations can bear.

Obviously we took lots of photos but only a handful any reader can  justifiably endure, but why photos of horses and their riders? And there were a bunch of them. Well, what parade has no horses or horse-driven carriages; horses are pretty much part of the American West; and the third photo below (read the caption) shows why I put these up front. 

These volunteers always had the biggest applause as they came by. They were the "pooper scoopers" - picking up and cleaning up after every lump of horse dropping. This shows the world how Americans love the underdog.  There were several of them, each group behind every section of the parading horses. These volunteer underdogs had developed their own individual routines on scooping and cleaning up, making it look like fun.

It was nice to see Texas represented by Texas A&M Corps of Cadets and their own equine variety. Their band participated as well.

Roses naturally dominate flower content of each float but any other flowers may be included, and plant parts like seeds, tree barks,  leaves and fruit and vegetables make up the rest. Close up photos show many of those varieties that were used.

The Rose Queen and princesses of the Rose Bowl are always featured with special designations but this year the Queen for the first time wore glasses. Why that had to be mentioned perplexed some critics but, be that as it may, she is a well accomplished high school senior. Currently conducting (already) cancer research at Charles Drew University, her space biology research has been funded by NASA and she is to choose whether to attend Johns Hopkins U., or Tufts, or U. of Chicago to major in cellular and molecular biology.

There were almost as many bands as there were floats and it is a privilege to be chosen. 

Military bands were always a hit. This Marine Corps band followed the veterans horse drawn carriage.

Did I already mention how cold it was?  Hawaii participated, and Hawaiians came in their traditional attire and I can't tell if the cold bothered them because they were always smiling. There were also a handful of the youth participants who seemed to not be bothered by the 45 degree cold. The 5-mile march apparently helped.

We were closed to the floats from the viewing stand but there was nothing like to be around within arms length of the very same floats the following day. There was a separate entrance for that - a mere 10% of what the ticket cost was to have a seat at the viewing stand. They parked the floats at a park nearby. We didn't get to even a fourth of the floats since the walk would have been too much for my wife.

This is a telephoto I took. Viewed from the ground, this looked so very real.

This made the day for my wife who had her picture taken with one of the float volunteer decorator/ designers.

There are a lot more facts about the Tournament of Roses, too many to list here, but they can easily be looked up online to whet one's appetite for those thinking about going in the future. It was very well worth it.

The whole tour included the Los Angeles City Tour, Sta. Monica and its boardwalk, the Ronald Reagan Library, a peek into the Dolby Theater and walkway for the stars during the Oscars. After the close up visit with the floats the coach took us all the way to San Diego with a lunch stop at Irvine. San Diego, though we've visited it before, is still a worthy part of the tour that included the guided tour of the aircraft carrier Midway. That will be for another show and tell.