Tournament of Roses: We're Getting Ready for a Parade!
It's New Years Eve California Style. For years the Tournament of Roses Association, has had a pact with the 'old man upstairs if they never held the The Rose Parade on Sunday, it would never rain on the parade. And as you might have suspected, for the past 50-51 years it never rain on the parade. There have been years it's been close-- real close. Tonight the local weathermen warned everyone it will rain all night and probably on Monday morning at parade time. So if the idea of camping out with 50,000 of your closest friends on soggy Colorado Blvd. doesn't appeal to you-- let me give you the low-down on the 2006 Tournament of Roses before you tune your television or log in to watch the parade online, let me bring you up to speed...
We have a Theme: "It's Magical"
We have a Grand Marshall: Sandra Day O'Connor, Retired Supreme Court Justice
We have a Rose Queen: Queen Camille Clark and six Rose Princesses Shannon Bowman, Michelle Corral, Rachel Geragos, Alyssa Jones, Carolyn Loo and Eliza WalpersWe have two college football teams to play the Rose Bowl: USC Trojans vs. University of Texas Longhorns. They brought their mascots, cheerleaders, marching bands and a large number of students and alumi to add to the fun and traffic jams.
We have over 48 Floats, 25 Marching Bands, 23 Equestrian Units (Click for parade line-up list.) The floats are being built as we speak and sleep to make the Judging prior to the parade and 8 AM kick off deadline.
We have a 5 1/2 mile parade route 
One of those folks with a coveted Media Pass is me.
I intend to go down and photograph the floats as they are moving them into position and at judging. You'll get to see them before they roll down Colorado Blvd. Hopefully I won't drown!
Note: We drown and never could get a shot off, without wrecking the camera equiptment.
