Days of '47

My camera ran out of batteries! How am I supposed to blog about a parade without pictures of some of the better moments? This won't be nearly as entertaining as it could have been...

Jay left early this morning, shortly after 5:00 am, to secure curbside seating for the rest of us. We still left at the early hour of 7:30 to meet him downtown and wait for the granddaddy of Utah parades to wow us. Jay got a great spot and had set up a sun shade for all of our camp chairs. All around us were people sleeping in sleeping bags and on top of air mattresses that had been there all night. Babies, toddlers, kids...I do not understand that kind of fervor for a parade.

A fighter jet flew overhead right at 9:00, the parade start time, and flew lower than I'd ever seen one fly. It was impressive and got us all a bit excited for the celebration. But we were probably a mile down the parade route and so didn't see anything else for another thirty minutes. Lots of motorcycle brigades doing driving tricks. President Hinckley led the parade in the back of a convertible with one of his daughters. THAT'S when I noticed that my camera was completely out of batteries. So sad. But we waved and he waved back with his fun long buckskin gloves on. What a dear man.

Lots of cheesy politicians behind him and then the floats and marching bands. There were a lot of floats! One for each suburb of Salt Lake. And it seemed like one for each stake, although I know it was really only a fraction of all of them. And lots of other floats besides. Other churches, businesses, organizations. Such an interesting phenomenon to me. So much money must go into those floats! Do they recycle them? Reuse them the next year? It would be hard for me to be passionate about making one.

Overall, I'm really glad we went. Interesting people attend parades! We sat by a lady, who for the entire duration of the parade, called out congratulations or hellos to whoever passed her by. "Good job, runner" to each of the hundreds of marathon runners passing by us before and during the parade. There is simply no way to describe it as annoying and hilarious as it became as she was calling out to "Good job, horse people!" "Good job, parade walker" as the names of their titles or purpose weren't clear to her. We also sat right next to our old Chemistry instructor at BYU. Dr. Kucher! Jay and I both had him for Organic Chemistry and as he is one of 5-10 instructors I would even know by name or face, we said "hello". He, of course, didn't remember us, but it was fun to see his white flat top again. He's serving a mission at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building.

More importantly, going to the parade made the day feel festive. I love the history of the pioneers and the celebration of their arrival here in Salt Lake. Not only is this area flourishing and pulsing with life, but their foundations here have really spread worldwide.

Jay had the rest of the day off and we enjoyed a restaurant like Rodizio Grill called Grille from Impanena which is a Brazilian Steakhouse. Lots of meat. Jay was in heaven and declared it his new favorite restaurant. The rest of the day has been spent lounging, reading, and relaxing. And now I need to go get dinner going because the boys need to go to bed earlier than they are used to. It's a school night!