tournamentofroses.com/…
Are you ready to vicariously experience one of the oldest bucket items on my list with me?
In the middle of winter, when all around me is dead and brown, I cheer myself up by watching a huge flower fest on January 1st. It’s the Rose Bowl Parade, 2 ½ hours of flower-filled floats and bands. I have found the best channel to watch it on is HGTV. They have the best closeups. For someone who suffers from SAD, it’s serious therapy. The parade precedes the college football Rose Bowl game. This year it was Michigan and Alabama playing. Michigan won, please send Down Heah Mississippi your condolences.
My tradition these days is to set it up beforehand to be recorded. Then I can watch it throughout New Year’s Day as I dismantle the Christmas tree. This year, I had the funds, the time, and the perfect travel companion (my older sister Christine), to experience it in person. Here is a small (but photo heavy) taste of what I was able to see.
The link I’ve posted at the beginning is the overview of the parade history. The website is vast and the Rose Bowl tradition has expanded exponentially. It’s interesting to poke around on it if you have the time. The TL:DR version, from the website,
What began as a small effort by Pasadena’s distinguished Valley Hunt Club to promote the city’s charm and beautiful weather, the Tournament of Roses has since become America’s New Year Celebration.
In the winter of 1890, the club members brainstormed ways to promote the “Mediterranean of the West.” They invited their former East Coast neighbors to a mid-winter holiday, where they could watch games such as chariot races, jousting, foot races, polo and tug-of-war under the warm California sun. The abundance of fresh flowers, even in the midst of winter, prompted the club to add another showcase for Pasadena’s charm: a parade to precede the competition, where entrants would decorate their carriages with hundreds of blooms.
Here’s a closeup of the stylized roses on the float…
The floats must have flowers or plant products covering the entire float. It can move mechanically, although it has to turn a corner from Orange Grove Boulevard onto Colorado Boulevard at the TV stand, where all the action is (and the expensive seats). Fresh flowers, beans, seeds, dried flower petals, leaves … all are materials to use. It’s exhausting, I am sure. Most can take up to a year to build. The end result is just spectacular.
Christine and I flew into Santa Barbara to stay a week on December 28, as we planned to combine a trip to see my nephew and his wife and family in Santa Maria, up the coast from SB.
We had an hour and a half drive down through LA to Pasadena for the parade, but there is so much to see in between that we knew a week would be just enough to scratch the surface. I can certainly make this diary a very long one with all the fun stuff we saw and did. However, I will concentrate on the Rose Bowl Parade because that is the main reason I was there. It also seems appropriate today here at Dkos on January 6th. Get ready for some flower photos!
We arrived early, as the parking people said we had to be there by 6am. We missed most of the New Year’s revelers. They were gone or sleeping it off along their claimed spot on the parade route. We found our bleacher seats and were thankful we had purchased some waterproof commemorative cushions. Oh, were we thankful! There was a slight sheen of moisture on the seats and we sat there a while.
We were at the end of the parade so we did have to wait a bit longer than most. We spent the time getting to know our seat mates. A cute couple from Costa Rica was there with their aunt, who lives in LA. Another couple, teachers, came from Santa Clara, up by San Francisco. The ladies behind us, a mom and daughter, lived in LA but the daughter had been born in my home town! It’s always the case that we find someone we know or is from our area, no matter how far we go.
Finally, the floats and bands started filing through about 10am. My seat was facing the southern sun, which made it difficult to focus, and the crowd was pretty rowdy. It was fun to see what I managed to photograph, so I’ve weeded out the photos with a hat in the middle of it (band dad), or a hand. We all had fun and no one was grumpy.
I tried to figure out which floats these are when I sorted photos. I apologize, I was not too successful on most. There are so many floats, and alternating bands, that I can’t even remember which is which. If I know who the sponsor of the float is, I’ll tell you but mostly, I just enjoyed the parade. If you’ve got the time or need a flower fix, you can see them for yourself on the KTLA stream. It is almost 3 hours long.
We also paid for a shuttle bus to see the floats close up after the parade. It’s an event called FloatFest. The floats are lined up at the high school in the afternoon on January 1 and you can also see them January 2. It was very popular!
I thought this was a very cute float. It’s kind of hard to make out what is going on here, but the elephant is holding the umbrella over the mouse.
Christine works for Kaiser Permanente in Colorado. We could have volunteered for float decorating but decided it was too much for these two old ladies. We went to the beach instead. (That’s another story for another day!)
Lots of bees on the floats. This was a bee band.
There was a band dressed in orange and fuschia tie dye, and a hippie bus that was decorated in tie dye. First came the little VW bus...
Then the flower band on the Flower Power bus!
The attendants were letting the kids get in the little bus at FloatFest.
The cats and dogs were playing all over this float.
I cannot remember which float this was, but it had a big lion on the top. Very elaborate!
Finally, at about 3pm it was time to go home. My phone was at 12% power and I did not bring my charging brick. Christine has more artificial joints than me and she was done for the day, so we packed it in and left for our ‘home’ in Santa Barbara. It was definitely a high point of the trip and worth every minute of a very long day.
My trip was packed full of adventure and sights. We visited historic sites and botanic sites, the beach and the city. California is so full of interesting sights, history and plants! As I said at the beginning, we barely scratched the surface. I’ll showcase some other parts of our trip in a future diary.
Worth noting, the beaches were inaccessible until the last day we were there. A storm caused such high waves that it was dangerous and so the authorities closed most of the beaches because of it. I believe it damaged some piers, and it washed away a few campers on the beach in one area. Quite the experience for two mountain dwellers! When even the Californians were out watching the surf, to me it meant it was a very big deal.
I came home Wednesday to freezing temperatures and bare trees, but it’s already January 6 and the sun is heading towards spring. I can’t complain. The Rose Bowl Parade helps me get through January and before I know it, it’s time to start seeds. Happy first week of January, everyone!