The Day After - A Visit to the Floats from The Tournament of Roses Parade

Despite the prediction of rain, we decided to go see the floats from the Tournmanet of Roses Parade held in Los Angeles, CA every year on Jan 1.  We bundled up, grabbed the umbrellas and away we went. 

I've been to see the Rose Parade live and in all it's glory once in my life, it was 1984, I think.  I remember getting down to Colorado Blvd at around 5 a.m. and freezing my butt off while waiting for the parade to start.  It was an amazing experience to see if live, however, I think seeing them the day after is a definite must do.  (If you plan to visit CA at this time of year, put this on your itinerary-the cost is $10 to get in and you take a shuttle bus which drops you off at the floats)

I couldn't fathom the idea of being surrounded by hundreds of thousands of flowers.  I loved the fact that I could spend as long as I wanted lingering around the floats, absorbing every detail and admiring the color combinations.  The one downside is that you don't get the experience of seeing all the moving parts, but if you watch the parade on TV, you already know what it looks like.  We did get to see inside the floats at the driver's seat, which didn't look very comfortable at all! 

All of the floats have to be covered in either flowers or organic material; dried beans, nuts, oats, etc., which makes them all the more remarkable.  Here are some close-ups that show the material used:

This depicts a fountain on the Beverly Hills Float.  And here is a closeup of the base of the fountain: 

 

I love butterflies!

Here are some more of my favorites. We took tons of photos, the rest of which can be viewed through my Flickr site 

 
 
 
 
There was one float that featured waterboarding dogs and dogs that did "dock diving" where the trainer/owner threw a toy in the air and the dogs would jump to catch them, landing in a pool of filled with water (it was heated to 70 degrees for them).  This float won the title of heaviest float which weighed in a 85,000 lbs.

 Approximate 100-150,000 people visit the floats every year.

Here are more of my favorite pics.  We took tons of them - feel free to see more on my Flickr site

I thought these books looked really interesting, as well: