As soon as Grady heard Stampede was starting up again he started asking to go the parade.
Last year we were lucky that Grandma wanted her glimpse of HRH's so much she got up early to get good seats. But none of us was that keen this year! When Brian got home the night before and told me people already had chairs set up on the route I should have gone with my instinct to drive down and put some out for us. We arrived on 6th avenue between 5th and 6th around 7am and it was already two rows deep. We grabbed where we could and had a decent view although Grady had to sit/stand on someone's lap to see.
 |
My cowboys!
|
 |
| The transit police offered to take a family pic. You'd think Grady was auditioning to be a poster boy for SNC! |
 |
| Ready for it to start. I would say he watched about 50% the rest of the time he spent flirting with the 8 y/o girl sitting next to us! |
 |
| Grandma's lap? |
 |
| Mommy's lap? |
 |
| Looks like Daddy's lap is the most fun! |
 |
| Up on my shoulders to give the troops a standing ovation |
 |
| Cowboy hats are sweaty, maybe a bandanna? |
 |
| And of course we had to end the day with a trip to Daddy's office! |
I enjoyed the parade and if we go again next year I will set up chairs or blankets the night before. I will say I had high expectations for the 100th parade and I honestly thought last year's was much better. I had heard that they cap the number of entries because so many want to participate but maybe they should have an audition of sorts? I just didn't think the "floats" that were basically a horse drawn wagon with a company logo should be in the parade.
And the city needs a better exit plan to get those350,000 viewers out of downtown. Where we sat the parade finished at 12:20. We went for lunch and then tried to catch the train, it was 5 rows of people deep waiting to get on. So we walked the bus, we got a seat which was great but we didn't get back to the car until 2pm! Maybe extra buses on standby to get people out to designated parking lots?
We are looking forward to enjoying more of what the Centennial Stampede has to offer this year! I hear they are already breaking records and it has only just begun. How about you? What are you doing for stampede?
