Winter Festival

Yesterday, we went downtown for the Winter Festival. They lit the Christmas lights in the trees on Park Avenue and then had a 3K Jingle Bell Run, entertainment, food vendors and a parade. We arrived an hour before the parade, parked the car a few blocks away and walked with Alisa in the stroller towards the main attractions. We saw parade floats and groups of dancers lining the backstreet, getting ready for the parade. We felt like we were backstage and not supposed to be there but no one said anything (and there were cops everywhere). We turned down the main road and realized we were then stuck walking on it because the sides had been fenced to keep people from getting in the way of the parade. So, we felt like WE were the parade right then...there were a few other people walking in the middle of the road like us and crowds of people on the other side of the fence were watching us. Suddenly, some of the runners appeared from a side street and ran past us. We walked a good ways before we found an opening, which was right when a cop told us we needed to get off that street.

By the time the parade started, Alisa was ready for a nap but couldn't sleep because of all the cheering and sirens. Craig and I took turns holding her up so she could see the lights, horses, people and cars going by. She looked tired but didn't cry until near the end (45 minutes later) so we decided to leave early to beat the crowd. We walked a few blocks up and then needed to cross to the other side of the parade in order to get to the street our car was parked on. We asked a cop at the intersection and he let us race across the street between floats. It was nice of him to do that, especially since the parade was almost over (we wouldn't have had to wait long to cross after the parade). Alisa started to fall asleep once we got moving and she was totally asleep during the car ride home.





Very tired girl: