The 4th of July - First Real Parade

Happy 4th!  I corrected a lot of my parenting wrongs today. My child is 5 years old and has no idea how to celebrate the 4th of July. Whoa, how did I manage to let that happen?  I decided to fix my errors and introduce the little ones to some good old fashioned Independence Day celebrations.

I realized that I've never taken my girls to a parade. A real parade.  They've only seen parades at Disneyland, and while those parades are awesome, they aren't the real street parade that everyone knows. My girls should experience the real deal and catch some candy from a float made of chicken wire and napkins, see the marching band walking in crooked rows, and see the big red fire engine at the end.  It's an all-American childhood kind of thing that every kid should do!

The parade was at 10am, so we had plenty of time to wake up leisurely and get across town for the parade. We got there at 9:30 and parking was looking bleak. I followed the line of traffic and people were filling in a Wells Fargo parking lot a couple of blocks from the parade route. Not bad. We parked and walked to main street. Luckily, there was a shady spot just waiting for us right at the end of the street. Score!

We had a about 15 minutes before the parade start time, and who knows if they start on time. It isn't Disneyland! Plus, we were at the end of the route, we might waiting half an hour. We noticed all of the red, white and blue that people were wearing. It was fun to people-watch with the girls. Libby saw three little girls wearing "Ponyo dresses" and she was wishing that she would have worn hers. They were cute, but those little girls were sweating like crazy in those red satin dresses and I'm glad Libby didn't wear hers. It was way too hot out for satin!

By the way, a "Ponyo Dress" is a red dress with white trim.  Libby has a Christmas dress that looks just like the  dress worn by the little girl in the movie "Ponyo".  It's a little Japanese anime movie that is super cute. We love the movie. It's sort of an environmentalist's version of "Little Mermaid".

Just before 10am, I sensed that everyone behind us in the shade was going to move around us and sit in front of the girls. So, we moved up to the curb and sat in the sun for a bit. Gracie sat in the stroller with the shade over her head and Libby sat in the shade of the stroller. Even in our make-shift shade though, it was still awfully hot. 97 degrees, but it felt like a lot more in the sun on the concrete.

The parade started on time and it didn't take long for the police vehicles to reach our end of the street. The girls loved the cop cars and motorcycles! They even loved the cops on horses! They were first, and after that, the girls didn't think much of any of the parade entries.  They were very disappointed.

There were lots of pageant princesses, but they were just girls with crowns on their heads riding in cars. Car after car of them. A few walked, one in  high heels! Poor girl.  There were cars with politicians waving.  Not impressive to a couple of little girls who don't give a hoot about who sits on the city commission.

There must have been three or four clusters of Boy Scouts walking. And a couple of Moms groups pushing strollers and pulling wagons. We waved, but Gracie and Libby were more than tired of these not so exciting parade entries. Where's the good stuff?  Where are the floats?

Some soldiers!  Yes! Now that's exciting!  A big vehicle pulling a tank went by and the "Young Marines" walked by holding up a huge flag. We all clapped and cheered for them along with the crowd.

And then a semi-truck with a flatbed came along. That was exciting too. Guess who was on the flatbed, yup, more pageant princesses. How many girls are in those crazy pageants anyway?

After an hour, no marching bands had gone by and nobody threw candy.  The girls were hot and bored. This wasn't at all as good as a Disneyland parade and they let me know it. I dare say, I've raised opinionated little girls. And they sure aren't shy expressing their criticism to their captive audience: me. They begged to leave. We are at a 4th of July parade and you want to leave before the end?  I blamed the heat and agreed to start hiking back to the parking lot and prayed the whole way that my van wasn't  hauled off by the tow truck pirates.

Whew! It's still there! We drove up the street and there was a great All-American dream come true - I know the girls will love this! I pulled into In-N-Out and ordered burgers, fries and pink lemonade. We came home and enjoyed our 4th of July treat! Ah, saved the day!