After ten days of traveling about and spending time with our families, The Astronomer and I finally returned home to Pasadena late last night. Even though we didn’t get to bed until way past midnight, we dragged ourselves up early this morning to catch the 120th Rose Parade. Now, we’re officially Pasadena residents.
Prior to heading to the festivities, we fueled up on steaming bowls of hu tieu nam vang—a Vietnamese / Cambodian noodle dish that my aunt prepared and packed up for us the night before. One of the best things about visiting family is returning home with enough food to last a week! Mmm, leftovers.
By the time we arrived on Colorado Boulevard, which happens to be a three minute walk from our apartment, there was already a huge crowd gathered. The best seats in the house went to the psycho enthusiastic folks who spent New Year’s Eve sleeping on the cold, hard pavement (and those who spent 80 bucks a pop for grandstand seats). The mountains hovering in the distance are one of my favorite things about Pasadena.
I grew up watching the Rose Parade on TV, so it was a mighty fine treat to see the magic up close.
Here’s a float featuring a giant gardening rabbit. Exquisite!
And here’s a gravity-defying float from the city of Huntington Beach featuring a family surfing on a gnarley wave of flowers.
My favorite float was made by the city of Burbank. The dinosaur popping out of the movie screen had puffs of smoke coming from its nose and his head moved about robotically! The float looked cool at every angle—front, back, side to side.
Happy New Year!
