Back from the parade!

Here we are, waiting ...

No, we didn't just get back today, it's taken me this long to get the photos up!  We had a great time walking in the parade and are planning to do it again next year.  Lots of people asked about the South Bay Ladies' Tea Guild and the Greater Bay Area Costumers' Guild as we walked through town, so hopefully we'll get a few more people to look us up and join in the fun! 



There were only a few things we didn't like about the experience.  One: we had to arrive by 8:30 a.m. in order to be in a parade that didn't start until 10!  It took us 1 second to check in, and we discovered that our "spot" in the staging area had no shade or anywhere to sit.  We waited around for a while in the staging area, and then asked if we could go around the corner and find a place to sit, which was a good thing because we really did have to wait an hour and 45 minutes (we were in the middle of the parade so we didn't actually start walking until 10:15) doing nothing, before the parade started! 

Photo: Bud Ayers.

We also ended up being assigned a spot behind a bunch of VW Bugs (see photo), which were cool-looking, but they put out a ton of fumes which made us sick, and they stopped every 5 minutes to drive in formations in the middle of the road.  We had to keep stopping and holding up the parade until they drove on again, which was kind of annoying.  We kept hearing other cars behind us in the parade honking their horns, and we couldn't be sure whether they were honking at us to get a move on, or honking to make noise for the audience!  We'll see if we can request not to be behind a bunch of cars next year!

We did discover that the Spirit of '45 people were right next to us in the staging area, so we posed for some pictures for them before the parade started (see photo).  It would be cool to walk with them next year, since some of their volunteers were dressed in 1940s costume and military uniforms. 

Photo: Warren Hegg?

We walked past a few scattered costumers on the side of the road, who acted as a great cheering section, and if we can get organized we may have a bigger GBACG cheering section next year!  Hopefully we'll have more costumers *in* the parade, too ...  There were also several people who shouted out "when's teatime?" from the sidewalk as we walked by, so we hope to meet at least some of them at tea in the near future.  Despite the heat and our sore feet, we all had a great time and felt that it was worth getting into costume and being outside on a hot July morning!  (And for those of you who saw us in the parade and wondered what was in the little red wagon, it was our water bottles and sunscreen ... Nothing more exciting than that!)