Last Saturday I went to the Festival of Trees parade. I hadn’t ever been before though I have gone to the festival itself. This year my friend Liz asked me to go since her bf was in the parade.
It’s billed to be the largest helium balloon parade in the Midwest and based solely on the fact that I’ve lived in the Midwest all my life and have never seen a helium balloon parade, I have no doubt that’s true. I didn’t count them but there were quite a few. We purposely stood by the skywalk between the hotel and the River Center so we could watch the people try to maneuver these massive balloons underneath. It turned out to be quite entertaining. A few balloons did this with grace and style, i.e. not dragging parts of the balloon across the street. Some struggled a bit more. One of the first balloons to pass gave us the quote of the day when the leader yelled “get it up!” to the other balloon holders after passing under the skywalk. We, of course, passed this advice on to the other balloons as they came by.
The parade probably lasted an hour and a half at least and as always the marching bands were my favorite part. The tractors were also nice, though I did notice a distinct lack of horses. Isn’t that a requirement for a Midwest parade?? My least favorite part was the string of cars carrying various pageant winners. Do you really need a Miss Iowa Teen, Miss Iowa Preteen, and Miss Iowa Spirit? And how can you have a Miss Something or Other, a Mrs. Something or Other, and a Ms. Something or Other. Isn’t Ms. just what you use when you don’t know if a woman is married? Seems like there’s some overlap in those categories!
Definitely a good time had by all, though I will offer one more suggestion. Throw candy. This is also a parade requirement!
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