#18: The Rose Float Parade

When I was in Girl Scouts as a kid, we used to volunteer to help with the floats for the Rose Parade every year. For years, all we were allowed to do - since we were so young - was help sort flowers. Nothing glamorous. But the last year I participated, I think I was about 12 years old, I hit what I thought was going to be the jackpot. They were going to let me decorate part of the actual float!

So they handed me a board, and a big bowl of white rice and a bowl of black olive seeds (I think) and told me to make a license plate. Nine hours later, I was almost finished. I couldn't even feel my fingers they were so cramped, my back was sore from hunching over the table, and I honestly couldn't stand the sight of rice for weeks. But it was all going to be worth it, because I was going to see my work on national TV during the Rose Parade!

Yeah... no. Of course the cameras spent about 45 seconds examining the vibrant flowers and the people waving on the float, and didn't once pass over my masterpiece of a license plate. At that moment, I was done, DONE, with the Rose Float Parade forever.

That was, until, I moved to LA 10 years later and met a few native Pasadenos (residents of the great city of Pasadena) who live and breath the Tournament of the Roses. This event is their chance to show the country, and even the entire world, how awesome they are. Over time I decided that, though I would never, ever volunteer to decorate again, it might be worth it to trek down to Pasadena to watch the parade in person on New Year's Day.

To watch the parade, I found that you have a few options. You can camp out on Colorado Blvd. starting at noon the day before the parade, and get a front row view of all the action on New Year's Day. Now, I do many things, but camping is unfortunately not one of them. Especially not on sidewalks... that's called being homeless.

The other option is to buy tickets to sit in the "grandstand" - one of the large bleacher structures that they build all along the 5-mile parade route. I looked into it early in the year, and found that a grandstand seat at their cheapest start at around $40 a piece (and get more expensive as the year goes on). It seemed like a viable enough option, until my main Pasadeno Michael told me that they give you about 8 inches of butt-room, you have to get there at like 5am, and the bleacher is as cold as ice (and about as comfortable). I was beginning to second-guess the decision, based on the pure hassle of it all. Not to mention, over 1 million people go to watch the parade, and we all know how I feel about large crowds and having to wait forever. But luckily, I have friends that are in-the-know, and Michael told me a little-known secret.

The night before the parade, all of the floats line up in order along Orange Grove Blvd, as the float designers make last minute adjustments and prepare for the judging. There are huge lights above every float, to the point where it's almost as bright as day. My friend lived just a block away from all the action, and after he explained how easy and fun it was, I was excited to check out this low-key, low-effort version of the Rose Float Parade. Unfortunately, he moved to Chicago last summer so I didn't get to hang out at his house while waiting for the floats to line up!

The Tournament of the Roses has a quirky rule that the parade and football game never take place on a Sunday. Trivia: it's because when the parade first started in the late 1800's, they didn't want the horse-drawn floats to spook other horses that were standing outside of churches. No joke. Since 2012's New Year's Day was on a Sunday, we went up to Pasadena on Monday the 1st instead. Ronny and I had a late dinner, then walked around amidst all the campers on the sidewalks to kill time before 11pm, when the floats started lining up.

The first thing I noticed is that the majesty and grandeur of the floats does NOT translate at all on TV. It doesn't even translate in these pictures and I was standing 5 feet away. It is absolutely awe-inspriring to see the magnitude of these floats, to see each individual petal amongst the thousands of flowers. Each float takes an average of 80,000 man-hours (all volunteer) to complete, and cost up to half a million dollars. There were a total of 47 floats this year, with entrants from corporations, cities, universities and charitable organizations. A great part about seeing them the night before is that each float is "escorted" by a handful of the volunteers that worked on the float, many of whom are a part of the organization behind the float. You can ask them questions about what materials were used, how long something took, its significance, etc. Luckily Ronny found a really cute corgi to go play with while I asked a ridiculous amount of questions.

I absolutely loved the whole experience, and am so glad Michael educated me on it. I would have never known otherwise! I really hope I get to do this again, even though I still have no interest in going to the actual parade. Oh, and the best perk of all, going to this is completely FREE! All we paid was for parking, which was a fraction of what it would have cost us the next morning to see the parade.

It's lamentable, again, that my camera was still broken at the time (I have since replaced my old point-and-shoot with a Nikon D5000 SLR) so I again apologize for these pictures being pretty low quality. I'm sure you can google Rose Parade 2012 and get awesome profesh pictures.

People like me forget that there is actually a football game involved with the Rose Parade. Traditionally, each university playing in the Rose Bowl submits a float, and its marching band and cheerleaders march with it in the parade. Here's the University of Wisconsin...

... and the University of Oregon (the eventual winners of the game)

A breathtaking dragon made from yellow mums from Air China's "Spirit of Prosperity and Harmony" float, which celebrated 2012 being the year of the Dragon. I believe this one ended up winning the top trophy.

This one was called "Shining Knights Still Exist" from Odd Fellows and Rebekahs

Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer! The wheels on the wagon actually turned as the float moved.

This one is from the Aids Health Fund, titled "Our Champion." It featured three floral portraits of Elizabeth Taylor, the charity's founder, in different stages of her long career. The portraits were made using nine different shades of seeds. They were truly stunning in person.

Dole's "Preserving Paradise" float was an ode to the beauty of Thailand. Remember, this entire thing is made up of organic plant materials. Unbelievable.

A very awesome rainbow, I don't remember which float

My company, Paramount, had an entrant this year to celebrate its 100th Anniversary in 2012. It was called "100 Years of Movie Magic" and featured the Grease Lightening car, Forrest Gump's bench, the plane from Wings (the first Paramount release), Bumblebee from Transformers, the Star Trek ship Enterprise, over 4,000 red roses to make up the "red carpet," and the famous Bronson gate that I drive through every morning on my way into work. Pretty cool!!

20-foot tall floral Bumblebee

Me and Ronny in front of the Paramount float. We wanted to take a picture in front of the Cal Poly float, but for some reason it was dark where CP's float was lined up.