Linda's This 'n' That

I love the Rose parade and every year I would set out to sit down and watch it and then something would come up. So this year, I thought ahead. I took and Christmas decorations down early. That was always something I did on New Years day. I put dinner in the crock pot (black eyed beans) I was ready. And this year I made it. I got to see the whole parade. The theme was 'Hats off to Entertainment'.
There were so many really good floats the Amer Asso. of Realtors float had a Robinson Family theme that was out of this world.
The bands were great. Can you imagine walking, dancing and marching for 5 miles. Made my legs hurt just to think of that. The one for the Salvation Army actually came from Wales, UK.
One of my favorite floats was the one from National Balance pet foods, with the English bull dog skate boarding. There was this big English bull dog on his skate board all done in flower petals and veggie. Then they had a track that went around him and on the track they had the cutest real English bull dog skateboarding. He was going to do that for the whole 5 miles. It was just adorable.
Cal Poly U. had an amusement park theme with the rides moving in all directions. And beautiful colors.
The one was from the city of Roseville boasted a replica of a 1909 steam engine.
China airlines had a huge Phoenix which was bright and beautiful.
There was one with a Jack in the box, using 76 performers, dancers records playing. Just spectacular.
The float from Alaska had bears and a canoe.
The Ronald McDonald house was magnificent. Did you know that Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald clown and he was the one to invent him? Interesting!
I not sure but I think the biggest one was by the International Music and was 410 ft long. Had big bird, Elmo,Abby Cadabby and Oscar.
Ftd's theme was the Big Screen with elephants and peacocks.
Every float was just magnificent.
It takes some talented artist to come up with the designs and then incorporate it with flowers and vegetables. It takes as many as 13,000 men hours per float. Uses over 100,000 flower petals and 16,000 tons of steel per float.
With all of that and the colors and movement is it any wonder that it is my favorite parade to watch. I hope you all got to see it and enjoyed it as much as I did.