I've not been to either parade in years, but now I had a reason to go: my granddaughter was in the parade.
To me, the parade is something like the old saying, "if you've seen one, then you've seen them all." So, I've seen a few and gone shopping during many others.
Shopping or eating out is nice during the parade since everybody is at the parade, and not eating or shopping.
Now, my granddaughter is in one.
The parade was boring, as usual. Way too noisy for my taste, and then some of what was going on was silly, I thought. As the mayor's wife holding up her dog passed by people around me shouted things like, "Hey
mayor, which one is your wife?" Mean, but funny.
Then there were the Martha Washington debutants whose dresses cost more than many cars.
Of course, all of the police had to make sure we breathed the exhaust fumes of their motorcycles and got our ears blasted by sirens. Boys (and maybe girls) with their toys.
The floats were nice, and it was obvious lots of time, effort and love were put into each one.
But the best one, of course, was Lexi's. She was dressed as a surgical nurse and along with her classmates, sat on top of her float, waving to the crowd.