California, Arcadia Dec 28 - Jan 2

The Rose Parade Rally. Arcadia, California Dec 28, 2013 - Jan 2, 2014

Santa Anita Race Track - Arcadia, California
Six Day Rose Parade Rally
Saturday, Dec 28, 2013 Day 1
Kay & I and John & Bunny arrived at the Santa Anita Park about 11:30. Got all registered and set up.

Jim telling us where to park.  He is from Colorado also.

 John and Bunny are parked next to us.

Kay doing the registration thing.

John and Bunny taking Boss for a walk.

This is what the parking lot looked like about 3 pm.  We are in the front row, and there are 5 rows behind us.  There were about 130 RVs at the Rally.  The picture doesn't show it much but they really did give us lots of room to park.

Our first dinner in the rally tent.  We were fed very well throughout the Rally.

Sunset our first night.  The weather was awesome the six days we were here.  We were told this is the best weather they have ever had for the Rose Parade Rally.  

Sunday, Dec 29, 2013 Day 2
Breakfast in Rally Tent.  Food is very Good.  Then at 11:15 we started loading on the buses to take us to the city of Sierra Madre float Building to work on their float.

One of the 5 buses that transported us to each event.  Was great to have the transportation all taken care of.  Our car or truck never moved.

There ain't anything I can say about this one.

The concept drawing of the float, and the three young ladies that will ride on it.

First they cut the stems off the rose, than hand it to me.  I than stuff the rose into a glass vile full of water and placed it on the tray.

John working with the roses.

Bunny also worked on the roses.

After a tray is filled, they are stored in this refrigerator truck.

The float had to be opened up to work on, and get it out of the barn.

The two little fish for the float.

 Sunday, Dec 29, 2013 Day 2 Afternoon

They bussed us to Santa Anita Race Track Club House for a very good lunch and some betting on the horses.  Kay and I came out with more money than we went in with.  Well at least a couple bucks.

Entrance to the Santa Anita Race Track.

Eating lunch at the track.

All the blue shirts are the staff for the rally.  They did an awesome job.

A view out the big windows on the club level.  You can see our campers parked across the parking lot.  The big white tent is where we had our meals and entertainment.

The big windows above the stands is the club level where we ate lunch.

John and Bunny waiting for their horse to come in first.  After we ate lunch we walked down to the lower level to see the horses as they came in.

The race track was grass.  Here they come around the last bend.

Almost to the finish line.   After the races, they bussed us back to the campground to get ready for dinner.
 Sunday, Dec 29, 2013 Day 2 Evening

Tour and Dinner at the San Antonio Winery

Just my size

There was a lot of wine barrels stored here.

The dining room was decorated beautiful for the holidays.

They are ready to eat.
 Monday, Dec 30, 2013 Day 3 Morning
After breakfast in the rally tent, they bussed us down to the Rose Bowl Festival Grounds.
Here we will tour two of the float barns where some of the floats are being worked on.

The lines to get into the barns were very long.  We heard this was the most attended Rose Parade and events ever.  You could tell from the lines.

The following are people working on the floats.

After we got done viewing the floats, they bussed us back to the Rally Tent for lunch.

 Monday, Dec 30, 2013 Day 3 Afternoon
Our next activity was the Bandfest Show.  It was being held at Pasadena College Football Field.

Pasadena City College Tournament of Roses Honor Band

Westfield High School, Chantilly, Va

This band came all the way from Japan.  They really put on an entertaining show and you could sure tell they loved being here.

Los Angeles Unified School District All District High School Honor Band

Homewood Patriot Band, Homewood, Alabama

 Monday, Dec 30, 2013 Day 3 Evening
Group Dinner at the Rally Tent
 Tuesday, Dec 31, 2013 Day 4 
Group Breakfast and Dinner at the Rally Tent

Tuesday, Dec 31, 2013 Day 4 Afternoon
Board the buses for Huntington Library & Outdoor Gardens Tour.
Once the house of Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and his second wife, Arabella (1850–1924), the Huntington Art Gallery opened in 1928 displaying one of the greatest collections of 18th-century British art in the country.

Our tour group was small, which was nice.

The main house was 55,000 Sq. Ft.

This fountain was at the end of the front lawn.

Kay can not remember which building this skylight was in.

So many flowers for this time of the year.

the Arboretum 

I have to get at least one bee in the flowers.

Wall leading to the Japanese Garden

Beautiful tile work 

Reflection pond in the Japanese Garden

Much of the Jananese Garden was getting refurbished.

Bridges in the Chinese Gardens

There was a temporary display of artwork in what was once the garage.  The painting on the poster was from Roger van der Weyden (flemish, ca. 1400-1454. Virgin and Child (ca. 1460) 

 They also displayed many beautiful paintings in the main house.  The most famous is probably Blue Boy by Thomas Gainsborough

 Pinkie by Thomas Lawrence was also displayed in the main house.

One of the rooms in the main house.

 Tuesday Dec 31, 2013 Day 4 Evening
New years Party.

The band was quite good.

The Rally Tent all decorated for the party.

There was a funny hat competition at the party.  So I had to wear my froggy hat.  I'm sad I did not win anything.

The parade of funny hats.

Was trying to use my noise maker as a straw to sip my champagne.  It did not work, but I had to try.

There was an open bar and we did enjoy it.

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Wednesday Jan 1, 2014 Day  Morning
Parade Day.  We had to get up at 5 am to get on the bus by 6 am.
It was a short 4 block walk from where the bus was parked, to our seats.  The only thing bad about this was, there were also another 5000 people trying to get up the the road where the seats are. 

United States Air Force Thunderbirds Flyover

Wells Fargo theme banner

American Honda "Keeping Dreams on Track"

Western Asset Management Co. "So Close, Yet Safari Away"

Dole Packaged Foods "Sunrise at the Oasis"

Sunrise at the Oasis

Sierra Madre Rose Float Association "Catching the Big One"  Kay, Marty, John and Bunny worked on this float.

Singpoli Group "Connecting Cultures, Delivering Dreams"

Liberty High School Grenadier Band,  Bethlehem, PA

La Canada Flintidge Tournament of Roses Association "Dog Gone"

Medieval times Dinner & Tournament

K9s4Cops "Working together for Safer Communities"

Miracle-Gro "Grow Something Greater"

Valley Hunt Club

Kiwanis International "Bridging Children's Dreams"

City of Pasadena Fire Wagon

City of Pasadena Fire Truck

Trader Joe's " Pickle Car"

City of Alhambra "Monster Truck"

NBC's "The Voice" 

The top three winner for 2013

Public Storage "Adventures in Space"

Homewood Patriot Band, Homewood, Ala

Calizona Appaloosa Horse Club

Lutheran Layman's League "Jesus Welcomes All"

Wednesday Jan 1, 2014 Day  Afternoon
After lunch the bus will take you to the Post Parade Float Viewing.  We decided not to do this trip and it was a good thing we did not go,  we were told that there were so many people, you could not get near the floats.   So the four of us took the time to take a much needed nap.  At 4 pm it was root beer float time.  I had two of them.
Thursday Jan 2, 2014 Day  Morning
It is pack up time.  John and Bunny had to leave early because they had a long way to go. Kay and I took our time getting ready to go, we were only going about 30 miles to our friends in Buena Park.  Went up to the Rally Tent for coffee and to say goodbye to the rally team.  Again I will say they did such an awesome job.  It has been a wonderful past 6 days.  Made lots of new friends.  If anyone reading this blog has a chance to do this rally, I highly recommend it.  For Kay and I, been there and done that.  Now I can take it off Kay's bucket list.