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Headin' for Pasadena - love that snow, long as it's way up there . . .
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That's our Rose Parade Rally encampment at Santa Anita Race Track
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This is the design drawing for the float we got to "work" on
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All floats must fit uder a 16.5 ft underpass, so tall ones must fold. This is how you fold an elephant's rear
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That's the work area where our group played with all those flowers
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Judy does her part - over 20,000 roses were pruned and inserted into water-filled vials
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Now we're at The Huntington with our guide Anna Wang, who's explaining the 100 year old bamboo grove
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Scattered about the grounds are assorted museums and libraries
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This was the main residence of the Huntington Family 100 years or so ago
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Having toured many estates, we have learned that all rich people collected statues of semi-naked people
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The Huntington is famous for this special camellia.
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We like the backlit view of the little rodent
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This building, originally the garage, doubled for the ground floor of White House in the TV series West Wing.
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We didn't go into the greenhouse - but it was nice from the outside
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The new Chinese Garden was a delightful place
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We were told that all of the work was done by Chinese craftsfolk imported just for the project
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Even the rocks that line the ponds were imported from China
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Our Chinese guide was very proud of the garden
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We learned how to tell the gender of the hospitality lions. This one's female. Trust us.
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An Oregon Douglas Fir flagpole - 120 ft above ground, another 14 below. All one tree
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There were lots of statues of the goddess Diana in various poses
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There it is - Gainesborough's actual original "Blue Boy"
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And at the other end of the same room, Lawrence's "Pinky"
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Proves you don't have to be attractive to get sculpted
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This art museum is in the old family residence
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They had a nice collection of Wedgewood porcelain
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Single-manual harpsichord (1773) and single-action Erard harp (circa 1800) adorn the music room.
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Painting of a lady harping
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Judy liked this triptych
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The veranda was a comfortable place to relax - living here would have been lovely
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Told ya about those statues
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Tuesday morning found us in a lo-o-o-ng line waiting to see floats being built
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All tour group guides find ways to be noticable. Ours were much more subdued than this one
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You'd expect to see lots more people bustling about . . . .
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Everything needs to be covered in vegetable matter - including the supposed vegetables
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The whole parade involves lots of people pruning lots of flowers - this is another tour group volunteering
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This float is starting to look partially finished
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And that one looks almost finished
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Here they're building a float full of DaVinci inventions
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These two floats are folded into travel positions - Wizard of Oz on the left, King Kong on the right
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That's where the football game will happen on New Year's Day
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They even set up a food court for the gawkers and the workers
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Remember this view of the Cal Poly float when you see it finished later on
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Applying flower petals to some bumper cars for the Cal Poly float
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In the background, Big Bird is folded in half
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Two genuine Wells Fargo stages awaiting their flowers
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These ladies were applying crushed straw-flower petals to plastic sticks to emulate reeds
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Sometime soon, all of these will wind up on the Sesame Street float
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Flower heads to be used to make those rings
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Where bus drivers hang out waiting for passengers
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Bandfest is where all the bands invited to the parade show off for each other (and us)
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Pasadena City College band waiting to march onto the field
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We're not sure what this was supposed to be, but it was loudly warming up the crowd
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Most of the bands performed for the folks on the other side of the field
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We got to see a lot of band backsides, and the music was nice too
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We wondered what these folks were going to do
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And then they disrobed and did it. Wow!
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The band headpieces are spectacular
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This guy in a tux directed whenever the band faced this way
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Bands did field performances - in the parade they pretty much just march
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Somebody's gotta do cleanup
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The band from Broken Arrow OK was huge . . .
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Whole lot of twirlin' goin' on
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That's all one band, strung out half way around the field
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These folks took a while to get all their gear laid out
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Details, details
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The Marine Corps Band was a big crowd pleaser
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The band's performance included a staging of the Iwo Jima Flag Raising
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Never noticed before that Sousaphone players don't wear big hats like everyone else
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As we parked at the race track, we could ride the track's shuttle to the clubhouse
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The race track building was impressive . . .
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The dessert was also impressive . . .
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The view of the race track was pretty good from the clubhouse
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They're setting up for a run on the turf - the tractor tows the starting gate to wherever the race is to start
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And they're off . . .
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You kind of get caught up in the race while you watch it
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Judy liked the three views of the race - two of them on the split video screen
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Lots of equine decorations in the clubhouse
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We stopped by the paddock on the way out to see the horses up close
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The sculpted strees were pretty, and pretty impressive
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New Years Eve party - bar's open!
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Some folks were in party finery and funny hats
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We were entertained by a very good dixieland band
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Some people stretched the definition of "funny hat"
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Judith sat cross from us, and was well decorated
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Bobbie built her hat from a road map, a shopping bag and some Rose Parade program pages
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Another guy named Al
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The band has performed on New Years Eve for this rally for 17 years
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Adult entertainment involving inflatable latex devices
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Staff member Evelyn always had a big smile
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Some folks danced
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Some folks smiled
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Some folks looked goofy
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The Funny Hat contest judging. Judy's in the middle under the yellow bag
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Bobbie won for Most Original
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Parade day - you gotta sleep on the street to get free front row seats
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Most of these folks are members of our group. Our seats are on the top row (where Al is)
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Took five airplanes to skywrite that . . .
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The first float featured Honda's Asimo robot - only 50 ft tall
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There are pictures of every float in the parade in our Parade slideshow
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We like musical floats and lots of animation - like this one, which won the Animation trophy
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So many floats were so far over the top
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Lots of bands and lots of twirlers - all avoiding the horse droppings in the middle of the street
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That's the Rose Festival Queen. We waved back. She didn't notice
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Some of the many colorful outfits worn by the band from Hawaii
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We like the little donkeys
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There were lots of people on horses. This guy twirled that rope for 5 / miles
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That's Our Float - Sierra Madre - and they won an award!
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Judy trimmed some of those roses!
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Cloris Leachman was the Grand Marshall
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This inner-city band from Washington DC was a crowd favorite
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They say there are 18 million flowers used on all these floats
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And then there are countless seeds, nuts, grasses, leaves and other vegetable things
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It's said there are a million people lining the parade route, but nobody actually counts them anymore
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More music, more animation.
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Many floats are entered by industries and businesses, many others (like this one) are entered by cities
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All of the people on this float are either organ transplant donors or recipients
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The Budweiser Clydesdales are always favorites
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The Wizard of Oz float was very detailed
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We like the kid in the meadow . . .
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Back at the encampment, Judith and her dog Grace
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Lunch time - build your own sandwich time
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Our group was always looking for and following the yellow flags.
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In the post-parade walk-around, we got to see the float details close-up
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There are at least 10 different colors of roses here . . . .
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That's such a great face . . .
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See the leaves that make up those leaves . . .
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The floats for the two football teams are generic, as the teams are decided too late for custom designs
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Thousands of seeds make up the beak, all individually applied by hand
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So cool
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To have a tree on a float, you have to build a tree out of other stuff. Likewise a leaf has to be built . .
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The piano smells better than it sounds . . . .
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Did we say "The detail is amazing"?
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Lots of folks missed the dormouse on the Alice In Wonderland float
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We are in awe of the folks who create these things
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One of the masks from the Alaska float
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Most of the bear is moss
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There's "our" float again . . .
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The roses are much more open now than when Judy was pruning them
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Those beady things in the center rosette are kumquats, split in half and glued down
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Looks better than most bulldogs we've met
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Oscar looks so natural. although in Oscar's case, "natural" is relative
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We suspect most of the folks at the post-parade walkaround weren't at the actual parade
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We'll end on this shot of the B2 stealth bomber, which overflew both the parade and the bowl game. Awesome