River Parade

Guillermo, Mom and I went to the Fiesta River Parade this evening!!  Guillermo took a short nap when he got home from SAC, and then we decided to head on over to pick up Mom since we were unsure of what the traffic was going to be like.  We had a smooth drive over to her house, which was at around 4:45pm.  We were amazed.  We saw Linda and Jacob for a few minutes at Mom's house and then we took off.  Driving into downtown was easy, too!  We think we were arriving at a good early hour, and also the day was overcast and very cool, so that was probably keeping some people at home.
We found parking right away in the garage closest to the Hilton Hotel (where our parade seats were).  While I walked over to the Hilton to pick up our wristbands for our seats, Guillermo and Mom went into Schilo's restaurant and had a cup of coffee while waiting for me.  I had no problem getting our wristbands, and soon I was back at the restaurant.  We all ordered a cup of their delicious split-pea soup and Guillermo also ordered a Reuben sandwich and I ordered potato pancakes, which I shared with Mom.  With our hot cups of coffee and the good food, we were nice and warm sitting inside that restaurant.  (Too bad I forgot the camera!)
After eating, we walked the short walk over to the Hilton Hotel, and took our seats.  Really good seats too!  Right up front and next to a bridge over the river, so as the floats went by we saw them emerge slowly through the bridge.
But, the weather was COOL, bordering on cold.  None of us really dressed warm enough for the wind that kept blowing.  Nontheless, we enjoyed being out there.  The floats were beautiful and fun - we had some beads,  a bag of potato chips and a fiesta medal thrown our way, so that was exciting!  The couple sitting next to us even gave Mom some of their beads, which she wore for the rest of the parade.
We left the parade in good time to get back to that parking garage and get our car out before it became hopelessly gridlocked.  It was a fun evening!