It turns out that my friend's husband is on the organizing committee for the parade, and so we had awesome seats! We sat on the second row of bleachers right next to the filming crews of all the major networks, which means that when any of the performers in the parade go by, they would stop and perform right in front of us. Literally, five feet away. It was great!
The parade was two hours long and included lots of dance performances, a famous Disney channel kid star (kind of like Hannah Montana), the Sledge Sisters (who sang "We are family" and "It's raining men," which was perfect since it actually did start raining while she was singing), a guy who made it really far on American Idol last year, Miss America, and the stars of Sesame Street (Heather's favorite). There were also traditional Japanese drummers, gigantic balloons (including Garfield and Bob the builder), and marching bands, etc. It was pretty cool being that close to such a real, major parade. We had a great time.
Afterward, we went a few blocks and walked through the Japanese street festival, which ran most the length of Pennsylvania Ave. They had stands there selling really good Japanese food (Dad, you would've loved the chicked teriyaki). Also, they had a real Japanese girl rock band. It was almost cool, but not really.
One of our goals that day was to walk down to the Tidal Basin (around Jefferson Memorial) and see all the cherry blossoms. Well, for those who plan on doing this next year, the cherry blossoms pretty much all fall off by the time the parade comes around. Definitely go during the first week of the festival, otherwise they don't last long. Oh well, we still have next year!
