I must say that we ended our staycation on an (unexpected) high note. I say unexpected because although most of our two week break was planned down to the minute, our last day turned out to be somewhat spur of the moment and so much fun.
On New Year's Day, the day before, we finally got around to the watching the 133rd Rose Parade a little late. It wasn't until about 9PM that we had a chance to tune in. As we watched, everyone (except for Catheirne and me) slowly started to fade out and fall asleep. Who could blame them after such a long a day of putting away holiday decorations and tending to the roses. As Catherine and I were watching the parade, a brilliant idea occurred to me, or at least I thought it to be so. Seemingly out of nowhere, the idea to attend Floatfest (the event that showcases all the floats from the parade) popped into my mind.
Catheirne and I got online to see if there were still tickets and as luck would have it, there were. Yesterday morning, once everyone woke up, I ran the idea by the kids and they all seemed very excited to go and see the floats in person. So we bought our tickets online, hustled to get ready, and headed out to Pasadena, which is about a 35 mile/one hour drive from our house.
Once there, we had to park at the Rose Bowl and wait for the shuttle bus to take us on the next leg of our journey, a 30 minute ride to where the floats were. This was not a particularly easy undertaking, but well worth it.
Seeing the floats on TV is one thing, but seeing them up close and in person is an entirely different experience. It's a marvel to see the incredible creativity that goes into each float, not to mention the impressive level of detail. Each one is more stunning than the one before it. Breathtaking, really.
I hadn't been to see the floats since I was a child. My dad used to take us, from time-to-time, to the Rose Parade and then to see the floats afterward. But that has been many, many years. It was special for me to experience with my children, what I experienced as child and to see it through their eyes.
Ending our Winter Holiday Break/Staycation on this note was perfect. I think we all had a lovely two weeks, overall, and have a lot of wonderful memories of special places visited and time spent together as a family, that we will always cherish.
Thank you for visiting the blog and joining us for this special time together. We hope, in some small way, that you felt like you joined in with us on some of our local trips and holiday traditions.
Please enjoy the photos of just a few of our favorite floats.
What would any event be these days without free covid testing centers scattered throughout the venue? How 2022!
We worked up quite an appetite walking for close to 3 miles looking at all the floats, so we headed back to Green Street, just a few miles from the Rose Bowl, to have an early dinner.
Once we got home, everyone took a hot bath, changed into their PJs and then we watched the classic, Sleepless in Seattle, as our final hooray, before saying goodbye to Winter Break.