Hip-Hip Parade!

We decided fairly impromptu Monday morning to head to town for the parade. I wasn't sure what to expect, being this was my first time, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The parade started at 10:30am (a very respectable time). We left our house at 10:05am, parked in the Extra Foods parking lot, as I had to do groceries after the parade was done and figured this would mean less driving in parade traffic (have you see how slow those pace cars go?), and walked the 2 blocks to a spot along the parade route. We took the chariot so the kids didn't have to walk too far, and we had absolutely no trouble finding a spot. It was so much less stressful than going to the stampede parade, that I may opt out of that one from now and focus on the Cochrane Labour day parade. They even had some of the same floats. The kids loved it, despite the wind, and enjoyed waving to everyone going by. Max would even get frustrated if someone didn't wave at him. They felt so much closer to the action this time, and yet completely safe in a familiar crowd. We enjoyed waving to the Gerries/Melanson's across the street from us. We also got to see a few friends participating in the parade. I'm not sure how their parent's feel about me publishing names, so I'll just leave it at '3 girls from the Cochrane Primary' and call it good. The kids enjoyed the usual: horses, shriners, clowns, and cool vintage cars. They especially enjoyed Sparky riding on the back of the fire truck and seeing Ronald McDonald and the giant Bull (2800 lbs!). We were especially proud to see the Cochrane Activettes with their float reminding the town of the food drive next weekend...The Black Pearl. They even had Captain Jack Sparrow riding around on a 'chubby car' (as Max called it), which was actually a golf cart. He was elusive though, and I never got a picture. The kids got plenty of candy, and I even walked away with a carnation from Panda Flowers and a little dish scrubby from Pots n' Peppers. We were back at the van and ready for groceries just after noon, and it was totally awesome by me.
Yeehaw!