The 2024 Rose Bowl Parade

It’s finally here! The big day! Honestly I didn’t sleep well because I was worried about missing my alarm for our 4 AM wake up to hit the road to Pasadena by 5:00 AM. According to Google, the drive should take 20 minutes. Oh Google, nice try🤣🤣

Actually the first 3/4 of the drive was clear and simple. Then it was time for our exit ramp; we had purchased parking beforehand to make things easier and to have a secure spot. So, we jockey into position to exit. Literally .8 of a mile from the exit ramp, and we stop. And stay stopped. For the next hour and 40 minutes. We couldn’t believe some of the “driving” taking place around us as I slowly started to lose my mind.

And we stopped.
This cab driver was coming over. No matter what. Pretty typical for this experiment in driving. Notice the sun coming up now.

Now the roads closed at 6 AM. Lucky for us, we didn’t need to cross the parade route to get to our spot. Finally we pulled into the garage and found our spot at about 7:30 AM. We had about 30 minutes to find our seats and get in them.

We found the seats easy enough, but the line to get up there, oh my. One of Seamus’s buddies’ mom found us in line and helped us get to our seats just as they closed off the parade route! Whew! We made it!!

Now, California is supposed to be warm. It was quite chilly but we came prepared and you are pretty stuffed into the seats, so it wasn’t bad. Thank goodness! The KTLA tv station was directly above us, and tv corner just to our left. We were at the beginning of the parade while everyone was fresh!! One of the drum majors’ mom was next to me and kept me on track with floats and when Mason would be coming down Colorado Avenue!

Our seating area. Section 414 aisle 3 and aisle seats!!
The line to sit. Potties were underneath the seating areas
Mr. Hinson, Seamus’s woodwinds director getting them ready to roll down Colorado Avenue
Getting ready to roll. There’s a big hill just past us that had to be hard to maneuver
The B-52 flyover
Here we go!!
Honda float
So many horse groups
Audra McDonald the grand marshal on the float we watched being decorated on Friday
This tree was amazing
Rose Bowl President
More horses. They’re beautiful and I love the gold jackets
Hopi Tribe float. It was amazing
The Rose Parade Queen and princesses
The Michigan float. The cheerleaders were dancing down the street. Large Michigan fan base for sure!
Another flyover
Costa Rica band dancing down Colorado
Alabama float
The blimp was over us the majority of the parade
Military coding float even had fireworks!
Trader Joe’s float. This was our indicator that Mason was coming soon!
First sighting of the MHS marching band heading down Colorado Avenue at tv corner
Mason High School is here! Spot #62 in the parade
The MHS Marching Band
Only about a mile into their 5.5 mile march through Pasadena
Marching
The moment we’ve been waiting for! It’s Seamus!!
Here he is!!
Bringing up the end of the performance
The view around us; it is a beautiful area. There was snow on the far peaks
Fluffy dog!!
Max made national tv too!!!
As we bugged out to beat more traffic we passed this cool float
This happened while we were at the parade
Kids getting ready to march. Seamus is in the second row on the left!
Crowds leaving the parade. We were already on the 405 South heading to the hotel. We had had enough traffic!!
Post-parade breakfast at Denny’s. It was delicious!!

After making it back in 20 minutes, it was nap time! We had one more event that I will save for the last post!! It was such an amazing opportunity to watch Seamus and the MHS marching band make their way down Colorado Avenue in the 2024 Rose Bowl parade! Michigan came out with the OT win over Alabama and will play next week in the National Championship against Washington!!!

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