Rose Parade

Photo's-1 Jack in the Box float showing the clown heads we glued beans on. 2 & 3 gluing the beans on the clowns heads. 4 China Air float we worked on, yellow chrysanthemums. 5 & 6 Jack in the Box float in Parade and close up of float. 7 Gluning backs of chrysanthemum heads. 8 Applying the glued flower heads on the float. 9 Closeup of glued flower heads. 10 Organ team float-white chrysanthemums on back of stairs. 11 Ohio team float same on stair backs. 12 Some of our group with the flowers we beheaded 13 Our tour guide Leslie(see her in Indian costume in next group of photo's) 14 Working on Jack in the Box Float, note sunburst is laying down. 15 Applying glue. 16 Linda with box of ground marigold flowers see yellow in previous photo. 17 Close up of the eagle, super detail. 18 Some of the 60,000 flower veils we help fill. 19 Filling the veils. 20-23 Equestfest -horse show of the groups in the Parade

Rose Parade Photo's

1 The Appaloosa horse club with our tour guide on the nearest horse on the parade route. 2 The same group at the horse show. 3. Our makeshift raincoats, contractor garbage bags. It rained for Bandfest 4 Bandfest- the Great band from Japan 5 The first float in the Parade.

Rose Parade

Hi! Everyone, A New year has begun and we want to wish everyone a HEALTHY, HAPPY NEW YEAR. If your are receiving our blog and wish not to receive it, send us an email and we will take your off our list.

The last week of 09 we spent in Castaic, CA at the Velencia Travel Village. That was 12/22/09 to 1/2/10. Christmas eve we went to the movies and saw “Have you heard about the Morgan’s ?” then dinner at Red Lobster.

Our Rose Parade HOP(Head Out Program) started on the 27^th. There were 42 couples including Victor and Terri from chapter 36 and two other couples that are their friends. What an exciting time we had. We had 3 catered dinners, one dinner at Marie Calender’s and a finger food pot luck. We were very busy, many mornings up at 5 and on the bus by 6-6:30 and returning after 9 p m. We spent 2 days working with the flowers and decorating floats. The floats we worked on were the Jack in the Box, China Air and the two football teams, Oregon and Ohio. We also visited other facilities that were decorating floats, there are several since there were 41 floats, down from 55 the year before.

A young lady by the name of Leslie gave us a tour of the facility where we were and also a great history about preparing for the parade. Next year’s parade is already in the working stage.. Two other adventures were a day at Bandfest featuring the award winning bands of the parade, performing a field show. Next day Equestfest featuring the equestrian clubs that were in the parade, which included Leslie from float decorating with her husband and daughter in the Appaloosa Horse Club. She is a very busy person, she’s and accountant, and takes her vacation to work with the Rose parade in many different faces including ordering flowers etc. We got to see Dave and Penni who were with another group. You just can’t believe some of the fiqures and time and schedules etc that they have to stick to. The cost of the floats start at $100,000. to over $500,000. They really appreciate volunteers. Escapees have done this for 3 years. The floats we worked on are 26 miles from the parade route, and it takes 6 to 8 hours to get them there.

We also visited The Crystal Cathedral, www.crystalcathedral.org ,in Garden City and saw The Glory of Christmas. The cathedral is made of glass, and you could see the stars. It is 100’s of feet tall and build in a pyramid shape. A beautiful Live Christmas Story. What a beautiful presentation. There where angles, suspended from wires, that flew overhead. As many as 8 at a time. There where live animal, goats, camels and horses.

Our parade viewing seats were great. . The floats were beautiful, it was great to see the finished products and appreciate all the hard work that goes into making this parade possible. Our favorite float was the dog’s snow boarding, this was the longest float in the parade. They really looked like they were enjoying themselves. We all yelled at Leslie and she yelled back Happy New Year.

After the parade we boarded the buses for the last time and went to the Post Parade Showcase of Floats, we could get up close to the floats and view all 41 floats. The different natural things they us are unbelievable. Some are seaweed, onion seeds, different beans, flowers of course, coconut (which smelled great while working with it) and to many more to mention. We are so glad we did this Hop.

New Year’s Eve we had a catered dinner and a party (using New York Time). Our son Mark called at midnight PA. time and said Happy New Year and he is turning off his phone so his dad couldn’t call at midnight our time.

On the 2^nd we had breakfast and said our good-byes. We headed to Pahrump NV. We spent 2 days at Terrible’s Lakeside . This is such a beautiful park. Now we are at Western Horizon Charleston Peak RV Resort and Winery. We hope to meet up with Betty and Shorty from Minnesota, they winter in Pahrump. We’ll be here till the 11^th then head to Thousand Trails Las Vegas till the 25^th. Our son Cyril will visit us for a few days. We hope to be back to Pa. this summer but can’t say exactly when . We hope to meet up with a couple we met at the HOP while we are in Las Vegas, they will be at the same park around the 22.

That is it for now, we’ve been pretty lazy, that getting up a 5 am is tough on older folks. Blazer is having a ball , there is a great area for him to run behind our site. It is a little tough on Lilly walking on the stones and rocks. They both love being out in the fresh air. Both dogs did very well being left on the long days we had at the HOP. They got extra treats and extra hugs.

Take care everyone and keep in touch. See photo's below or click on blog archives 2010 on left.