Rose Parade Float Decorating

This is the 119th Tournament of Roses. The theme for this parade is "Passport to the World's Celebrations". This post is very long with lots of pictures. It was hard to pick which ones to put in and which ones to leave out. This morning we toured two of the float building areas. One was a building which Phoenix Float builders use and the other was a huge tent, which the Fiesta Float builders use. The first pictures are of the Fiesta floats and out of the tent the prize winners usually come. The whole process begins as soon as the theme is chosen in January for the next parade. The process starts with the designers. The designs are drawn then approved by the sponser of that float. If it is approved (or they start over again), they start building the framework. They do test runs with the frame work to make sure it will fit and turn the corners, go under the overpasses etc. Everything that covers that frame has to be organic!! The white areas are coconut flakes, rice ground up and corn stalks that are white, pressed and cut out into patterns that are needed. Brown areas are kidney beans, coffee, peanut shells (ground up in coffee bean grinders), coconut husks etc. Some of the lips of animals are seaweed. If you click on the picture it will make it bigger and show more detail.

This is the Kaiser Permanente float..titled Aloha Festival. You can see the dolphins done in silver leaf, placed on one piece at a time. Then they cover in plastic so other things don't fall on it.
This is one of the spray of orchids that extend out from the outrigger canoe. They are able to put the orchids on now as they tolerate the cold weather better than the roses. The roses are put on last.

State of New Mexico "Passport to Our World and Beyond". Shows a space ship and green aliens. You can kind of make it out within the scaffolding.
This is the back side of the Rain Bird Float Titled "Preservation Celebration". It shows the ruins of an old temple. It celebrates India's rich heritage of weaving water, Earth's most precious resource, into the fabric of its cultural celebrations. It will have several water features on it that recycles from a 1500 gal tank. I am projecting that this float will be the sweepstakes winner.

"Celebrate the world through reading" by the city of Palmdale. His mortar board is covered in onion seed. the robe is made with poppy seed and black chives. The feathers in the front are corn husks that are ironed and cut in patterns, then individually laid to look like feathers. Around the eyes are pampas grass etc. Sugar pine cone petals are used on their legs.


Here are boxes of the seeds etc. They even cut ends off status flowers for different colors.
"On Track to the Future" by the City of Duarte/City of Hope. The kid riding on this float are all cancer survivors or patients.
"The Magic of Mardi Gras" by FTD. When you see orange on some of the floats, it is dehydrated carrots. One of these floats will have 100,000 roses on it.

A volunteer is showing one of the panels made with seeds and coconut. the boxes hold straw flowers.
It is hard to see, but in this area are 5 gal buckets of flowers everywhere. Some volunteers made the tubes with water and the cork on it that individual flowers will be placed in, then they are shoved into foam on the float.
More plants and flowers.

part of the mardigras float. It will have flowers all over it.
"Celebrating the Treasures of Egypt" by Cairo-Los Angeles Friendship Committee. That is King Ramses II and Queen Nofertari seated on the thrones.
The fan flower section on the egyptian float. These are inserted into green stems on the middle of the float.
"Special Delivery" sponsored by the Odd Fellows and Rebekahs. The brown flowers they are inserting are straw flowers.

"Festival of Lanterns - Illuminating the Way" sponsored by the city of Cerritos. It celebrates a diversity of cultures. These Tang Dynasty horses will be animated.
This is the front part of the Rain Bird float.
One of several tigers on the float.
This is the tail of a white peacock.

"A Celebration of Life - Dia de los Muertos" sponsored by Santa Fe Springs. This float is in two sections. It has depicted the Mexican day of the dead.

This is covered with different seads etc and individually placed on the bowl. Did you know that white glue will dry white if it is cold out? Then they have to take it apart and do it over again.
La Catrina, the female skeleton with the feathered hat.

Lion's Day with the United Nations sponsored by the Lion's club
We were on the upper level in this building and looking down on about 5 floats you can see here.

This is an Indian head dress on an indian lying down. "celebrating Our Rich Heritage" Sponsored by Farmer's insurance. When he is upright he is carrying a peace pipe.
"Happy Chinese New Year" The Year of the Rat, sponsored by the City of Alhambra.

Some of these floats are 17 ft high and some are 75 feet long.

Now we are anxious to see the finished floats.... later.

Christmas 2007

We celebrated Christmas this year in No. Palm Springs with our oldest.. Mark and our grand dog, Gretchen. We don't get to see Mark very often, so this time spent together was very special.

This is their Christmas photo. They both look great!!
Since we are travelling, our tree is greenery with lights and ceramic angels. Just thought you might like to see how we decorate.

Over above Bob's desk is tinsel with multi color lights.

Gretchen did a good job of opening her own gift.

One hour later, the squeeker and stuffing is out of there....

End of the day and this is all that is left of the toy... 2 legs.
End of the day and everyone is tired.

Mark came for the weekend as he couldn't come on Christmas day. So we had Christmas dinner with the other residents of Two Springs Resort. It was different and we missed our other kids.. there is always next year.

Joshua Tree National Park

Joshua Tree National Park covers 1,238 square miles. This California desert country contains striking granite formations and mountain ranges rising from flat valleys about 1,800 ft to 5,800 ft. at the mountain view points. It is a vast area and sometimes reminds you of what you think a moon scape should be. We will need to come back here to explore another time. We did manage to get a general feel for the area. There are several campgrounds, and that may be the way to take it in. However you need to be prepared to boon dock and we are not ready for that yet.

We started at the west entrance visitor's center. There is a film and information available there and well worth the stop.
Here is a grove of Joshua trees. Some are huge and bushy and others quite a solitary trunk. They had a fire through here several years back and a lot of the area is in a recovery mode.
Statuary at the visitor center. It reminded me of the bobbing bird that sat on a glass of water. Some of you will remember that from years past.
We saw several rock climbers as we drove through the area. Not sure how they do it!!

This is looking down from Keys View at 5300 ft. That wonderful cloud layer in the valley is pollution from LA. On clear days you can see all the way to the mountains in Baja.
There are 2 climbers on top of that rock pile.

Amazing how the trees live. This one fascinated me as the trunk is so twisted. The winds really blow through here.

The Joshua Tree has creamy white blooms in the spring.

Here is a thicker multi branch Joshua Tree.
This is an awesome world we live in.

Life in Coachella Valley

We have spent the last 2 weeks in the Coachella Valley. It is the high desert.. humidity is low, the wind blows frequently (along with the sand), it is cool at night and gorgeous during the day.
As you come through the pass into the valley, you can see for miles on the left and right of Interstate 10 these huge windmills. They call them wind farms. They are different shapes and sizes and generate a lot of power.

At the bottom of the picture is Interstate 10 (any trucks?). You can see the same sight on the other side of the Interstate. Even on the top of the hills.
The first park we were in, The Indian Waters in Indio, there was this road runner that came every afternoon to a park model across the road. The lady would sit out on the porch and feed him. He would even hop up onto her steps looking for her if she wasn't out there. This park is right behind the Shields Date Farm. I am sure he hangs out under the date palms. Date shake anyone?

The snow has fallen in the higher elevations. You can see the snowline on the mountain to the south. It seems funny to see palm trees and snow in the same picture.
It was also a time to get together with some friends from the Montana Owner's Club. Next to Bob is Charlie and Nila who were staying in Indio before heading for Yuma. On the right is Toni and Dick. We had met them in Washington the year before at their home in the Mt Baker foothills. They were staying down in the Salton Sea area before heading to El Centro. We have met a lot of people in the Montana group as we travel and go to rallys. They are some of the best.

Sunrise in No Palm Springs. We are staying at the Two Springs Resort until after Christmas. It is a very relaxed atmosphere and we are enjoying being here. We are looking forward to having Mark with us this weekend and his dog Gretchen. We want to wish all our friends

Merry Christmas

& A Happy New Year!