A Day to Remember

Good heavens, I've just realized that I forgot to write here about going to see the Rose Parade this year. I have lived here all my life, and never seen the Parade in person! But we had an especially-good reason to go this year, as our Julia was marching in it, as a member of the Pasadena City College (PCC) Honor Band. Our buttons were busting, I can tell you! She was one of the (very) many high-schoolers who auditioned, and one of the (relatively) few chosen to swell the numbers of the college marching band. This entailed a great many drives to Pasadena and back for rehearsals, and a very early morning on New Year's Day for an eight o'clock step-off, but it was worth it for everyone concerned, I think!

We had pretty good seats for watching the Parade, in a grandstand about halfway along the route, but not so great for taking photos, as what seemed to be a small palm tree and a distant street sign turned out to be quite often right in the middle of where I wanted to take a picture, so I was especially glad that the band had also got to march down Main Street at Disneyland a few days earlier, for which I had an excellent view through a telephoto lens — my photos are from that day —