Sunday, May 27, 2012

This is Mostly About the Parade

This was a bit of an "off" week for me.  Not a lot happening, and not a lot of energy, so no adventures in the kitchen or much else happening.  It was Becca's last week of school, so she had a lot of projects to finish and studying to do for finals.  It looks as if we have made it through her Freshman year.  Now to figure out what to do with the summer.  We are looking forward to it!

We had a real treat on Thursday evening.  Bette told us about the upcoming Healdsburg country fair and parade.  I didn't even know there was one!  We met up a little after 4pm and the three of us headed into town to watch the parade.  We had hoped to avoid the street closures, but ran into them, so took some back streets to get to as close to the midpoint as possible between the parade route and the location of the little country fair.  We pulled out folding chairs and walked downtown, finding a spot saved for Bette by friends just across the street from Flying Goat Coffee.  Bette treated us to burritos from El Farolito - a great little Mexican restaurant near the square - and we sat down to eat dinner and watch the people as they gathered for the event.

I had expected the parade to last maybe a half hour.  I was surprised when I looked at the time afterward and realized it'd been nearly 1 1/2 hours!  So many fun floats, and such a sweet small-town atmosphere, with families gathered together, kids riding their bikes and skateboards down the open streets before the parade started. All the little organizations that make up a small town, from the Shriners with their gong ...



... to lots of antique cars ...




We were disappointed that the high school band wasn't marching, but we were happy to see and hear them...


Many of the floats had someone either handing out or tossing candies.  This was the most interesting, from I believe the FFA float ...



What's a small town parade without tractors?



And cute cowboys with their sons on their laps driving them?


Then there was this classic beauty on a body shop truck.  I would hate to crash this! 




You just cannot have a parade in Sonoma County without Snoopy...



Even a fire engine got into the spirit of the western theme.


Just to dispel any rumors that Ford stands for Found On Road Dead - they stand the test of time!  (My Taurus is nearing 242,000, on our way to the quarter million mark.)



A small town parade has to have the mounted color guard!


This display of Old Glory preceded a large collection of antique military vehicles.




EVERYONE likes to be in a parade...


Beautiful gowns, beautiful horses...





And finally a video of the much-anticipated "dancing horses."  You'll hear the crowd shouting at them to not walk in the center of the road, onto a metal plate that had given other riders scary problems as their horses' metal-shod hooves slid on it like ice.  One man ignored the warnings and showed off.




After the parade was over, we walked back to the car to drop off the chairs and then over to a small field where booths and "jumpys" and inflated slides encircled a crowd there to enjoy some more festivities.  We walked through the animal exhibits, looking at the pigs, sheep, goats and cows who would be shown in the coming days.  Then it was back home to care for all of our own little critters before getting some sleep.

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