Chinese New Year Parade

I had the chance to go to the Chinatown Chinese New Year Parade again this year. It is the Year of the Boar (or pig). Thanks to Berda for the invites to the VIP tent and grandstand seating. The seats would have been perfect if not for certain photographers who think that it is ok to stand in front of people because their camera is bigger or people who don't feel that barricades apply to them. But enough of that!
Heading for the VIP tent in the middle of the fairgrounds, there were a couple of distractions...






In the VIP tent the Miss Chinatown Queen and her court were there mingling and taking pictures. There was also the usual spread of food and drinks.




Of course I wanted a picture.

We were making our way to the grandstands when James said he wanted a picture in the middle of the street... ok.


It didn't take long before James and Berda started fighting... again...

What am I going to do with these two?

Celia was going to get Jim a hat since there was no shade where we were and well, we all wanted hats too so...

and James didn't want to be left out...


The Immortals, led the parade with their lion dancers. They were the same Lion dancer that performed at Jim and Celia's wedding.



Bowing to the grandstand.

There were a few familiar faces in the parade this year...








This year's Grand Marshal was James Hong.


The Mayor


And of course...


It seemed like there were more misses than hits this year. There were a few parade participants that were very impressive. There was this tiny woman spinning, twirling and whipping a flag and pole that outweighed her by at least 30 lbs, group of middle school cheerleaders who threw one of their own a fair distance up in the air and catching her without breaking her neck, dragon groups (the longer the dragon the better!) and then this guy.

The group formed a flight of "stairs" with their rifles and this guy walks up to the top without missing a beat. Talk about confidence in your guys. Then he goes on to twirl his rifle like a pro.

Then there were the "misses".

How come the only one without a boat gets the paddle?


Am I the only one weirded out by this parade entry?


I think this guy either brought the wrong drum or the whole band took a wrong turn and ended up in the wrong parade.

I think the parade took a little longer than the organizers expected. Two-thirds of the way, you could hear all the red-shirt officials yelling at the participants to hurry up. Then some police on bicycles came up in front of the grandstands. At first I thought it was for crowd safety because of the martial arts group coming up with their weapons demonstration, then I saw this go up across the street.



As it turned out the police presence was not only not needed but a bit over done.

Also bumped into another familiar face.