The guards let us through the barricade to around 5:30 am. We were the first people to arrive and got to park in the spot to be the first car out after the parade. Being early was already paying off. Leslie showed up soon after and we walked a few blocks down to where the front of the parade to set up our chairs. A group of kind young people who had been sleeping on the ground all night agreed to watch our chairs for us while we walked around and looked at the floats. It was still quite dark out when we started to peruse and slowly got brighter until it was blinding during the actual parade. Much of the light in these photo is from the powerful street lamps along the route.
After our walk, we returned to the house to eat brunch and warm up before heading back to our chairs for the parade.
When we returned for the parade, our chairs had been moved forward and left open. Everyone was polite and friendly and really joyful with expectation. We got to sit in the second row of people with very little obstruction (aside from the super bright sun hitting us from the right side which threatened to burn only one side of my face). It was fun to see the floats in action and hilarious to see all the fake grins and overly stiff marching - marching is very serious! The many horses and burros were also a treat, the clydesdales were particularly impressive.
After the parade, we headed back to the house with Leslie and her husband, John, said thank you to our host, and hit the road. Yippee for the Rose Parade up close!
