kinetic sculptures, yeah?

Yesterday was a long day. It started out eeaarly (waking us before 8 am on a Saturday is SO not my idea of fun), by getting to the store in time to open – only to find it more than fully staffed. Bless my coworkers hearts, they got there [probably] at the break of dawn to take care of setup before their workshop with Catherine Lowe. Which was a huge success, incidentally.

The next couple of hours were unremarkable if one didn’t stop to consider how many times we were asked by tourists why there were people seated in lawn chairs around town?

The Rose Festival, we told them. And I even looked up the route of the Starlight Parade for one customer. I had to admit, I’d never been to any of the Rose Festival events intentionally (don’t ask), so I couldn’t really tell visitors what was going to happen.

Luckily for us, Opus came in around noon to keep me company (and sane). She explained the history of the different parades and events and the like to everyone who asked. It sounded interesting, but I was a bit overrun with customers so I didn’t think about it much.

Until I got off at 7pm, anyway. Opus was determined to drag me to watch along the parade route. We got dinner (if dessert can count as such) and sat down on Stark and 9th to watch. It started out with the infamous footrace. My favorite participant was the racing Jesus:

Complete with cross. He even ran backwards for half a block.

After the racers came the various floats and bagpipers with fairy lights (which I didn’t manage to photograph) and more interesting . I took a bunch of pictures, but can’t quite remember why, afterwards.

My favorite group, after the lit-up pipers, had to be the Cloud City Garrison, the 501st Legion Storm Troopers:

Oh, yeah. They were cool. I tried to get a photo of the Jedi, but didn’t manage it :(

It was an interesting event and I have to admit that I loved the whole parade-after-dark thing. The floats were much more fun lit up and glowing. I think I might have to go to other Rose Festival events now. The Dragon Boat race sounds interesting, actually…

Other than that? Life is quiet for a couple of days. And cold. It’s June and 58F out. How weird is that?