The Rose Festival

The Rose Festival is some kind of BIG deal in Portland. Even BIGGER than the Daffodil Festival of Puyallup, I know, hard to imagine. The tradition of the Rose Festival Parade is that it always rains. Lucky for us, my friends at the Benson put me in a corner room overlooking two streets of the parade route. We were nice an cozy and dry, unlike the fans on the street below us.



Here comes the Boy Scouts and the 100th Grand Floral Rose Parade begins!!!



And now we have the Princesses and the Rose Queen. The float was sponsored by Ronald McDonald so I assume they had bags of Big Macs and fries to keep them warm.



This is the Lewis and Clark float, celebrating their bi-centennial. This would make a good WASL question: "What came first: Lewis and Clark or the Portland Rose Festival Parade and why?"



Give it up for the Sweepstakes Winner, the best of the floats this year. But this was an easy vote for the organizers. I mean like who would want to piss off a giant tiger with fire before the parade starts. Yup, a vote for this one is a no brainer.



This was our favorite band. Which high school, junior high or possible college did these kids come from? Well, these kids came from all over ... about 40 + years ago. These are former high school, college and military band members who range in the age from 19 to 85. With over 500 members, this is the largest permanent marching band in the world. They were great and totally fun. If you look really close you will notice that more than half of the baton twirlers have gray hair.