Worth the Traffic to Get There

We are a family that loves a parade.  And our hometown puts on a monstrous one.  120+ entrants, including military, high school and middle school bands (must have been 15 of them), drill teams, horses, clowns, tractors, fire trucks, hot rods, princesses… it’s really just the best.  And it’s all part of a tradition called Loyalty Days, an invention by the US Government in response, according to Wikipedia, to the first Red Scare in 1921.  So it’s a giant middle finger to the former Soviet regime.  Which is worth celebrating, I guess.

 

Also worth celebrating?  A kiddie parade, blessing of the fleet, and 85+ degree weather all weekend long.

 

Grandma has toys.  Better toys than can be found anywhere else in the universe.

 

Like a funnel!  That’s a great toy.

 

You’re damn right Lightning McQueen rode a bike in the parade!  Happy as a clam, even though he was wearing a long-sleeved costume.

 

Blessing the fleet.  The boys went with Tony, who drove the boat, and Grandma Loris and great-Grandpa Gene and maybe also Grandpa Joe, but I don’t really know because unless the fleet wants to be blessed with vomit, I don’t do boats. 

 

That’s Murf.  He’s a bit scary.

 

Fire Truck rides are the BEST.  At least Charles thought so – he was so excited and moving so quickly, we hardly got a photo of him.

 

This is how Jamie felt about all the sirens.

 

This is how I felt about all the Jamie snuggles.

 

I tell you, Jamie could not have been cuter during the parade. 

 

Charles, on the other hand, only seemed to come alive when he was pointing out tractors for Jamie.

 

Apparently, making sure that your little brother is well aware of oncoming tractors is the only thing important enough to make my little sloth move in this kind of scorching heat.  (Awww!)

 

And then Charles got to drive (well, steer) the tractor all the way around the house.  Jamie cried, because tractors are only cool from a distance, don’t you know.

 

If you’ve never been to the Long Beach Peninsula, I highly recommend it.  What a great place to vacation with your family!