Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Our hearts go out to all affected by the fires in Southern California.

On Jan. 2, our Evie’s Travel group returned from our Tournament of Roses Parade tour which included visits to some of these areas later affected by the fires. The highlight of our five-day tour was certainly the parade, however, we kept plenty busy with tours of the Reagan Presidential Library including a special exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Santa Monica Pier, and touring Hollywood and many surrounding neighborhoods.

Two days before the parade, we visited the float building sites to watch volunteers put the finishing touches on a few of the parade floats using roses, seeds, bark and leaves. In total, about 18 million flowers are used for the floats.

Watching those finished floats traveling down Colorado Blvd was such a thrill.

This year’s parade theme was “Best Day Ever” and featured 39 rose-covered floats, 24 marching bands and 16 equestrian teams.

The marching bands seemed to span the entire city block with the largest band having 407 students including 47 in the color guard.

If you have an interest in traveling with us, please contact Evie or Jan at the Mower County Senior Center.