105th Rhododendron Festival Parade

On May 20th, we drove down to Florence, Oregon to watch Max as he marched in the Rhododendron Parade.   Max participated in marching band this year with the 7th and 8th graders.  Because he started band in 5th grade in Minnesota, he was ahead of the 6th graders here who cannot start band until middle school.   Switching band classes also meant he had to go to health/gym with 7th and 8th graders and he had to take Algebra this year.  It made for a very homework heavy year for Max and a little TMI from the older health class.

This school year, the band marched in two parades - Florence was the second and Max took the whole thing very seriously.  He memorize his music and marched exactly as he was was told.  I offered to drive him down to Florence the night before, but he was very excited to travel down in the fancy buses with the rest of the band.  They left Beaverton at 6:00am - yikes.  After the two hour parade, the kids were shuttled down to a state park on the ocean with miles and miles of sand dunes where they played for hours before heading home to Beaverton.

Peter happened to be in town visiting that weekend so we left soon after the bus to make our way to Florence.  It is a LONG drive down there and I slept through most of it as I am incapable of staying awake on road trips when I am not driving (and it was raining). I was fighting an eye infection and had to spend two weeks in glasses which did not make me the happiest of campers.  My glasses give me a headache and I just do not feel like myself without my contacts.

Here we are on the parade route.  It rained until the start of the parade and then it stopped for the entire parade!  The kids were still in their pajamas and decided not to change as they were cold (and Sophie was sick - I found out a few days later that she had walking pneumonia).

 Here comes the marching band!

That's Max's band teacher on the left.

There he is!

 

There he goes!

 

This was one of those parades where the people on the floats throw lots of candy and stuff which made Calvin and Sophie quite happy.  I was happy because we found a place to sit that was close to a coffee shop with take-out hot chocolate available.  It was kind of chilly.

 

We had a good time watching the parade and I'm glad we were there to support Max this year.  However, next year we are staying home.  It is too far to go for a day trip.