The Rose is a peach of a parade to see in person. Ah, you say, I can watch it from the comfort of my living room. But after this morning, I swear on a bed of roses that TV does scant justice to the peerless Rose Parade.

For one thing, it squishes everything into a little box, thereby losing the scale of the floats, some of which are gigantic. Their sheer size packs a punch for the in-person person that no TV framing can approach. TV also smooshes the texture and delineation of the thousands of flowers on every float. See those blooms in the flesh, er, petals, and you quickly grasp what enormous work went into their placement.

If you could have seen the actual Cat in the Hat float today or the rain forest float (complete with waterfalls), you'd want to come back for more, or at least you'd recognize what you'll miss next time you watch the Rose Parade on the tube.

(From top to bottom: UW Marching Band during the Tournament of Roses Parade; Uw cheerleaders; King Kong float; and the Cat in the Hat float.)

More postcards:
Dec. 28: Westard ho!
Dec. 28: Thawing out
Dec. 28: LA scene
Dec. 29: Old Pasadena
Dec. 29: Roses HQ
Dec. 29: Petal pushers
Dec. 30: 90210
Dec. 30: 90210, cont'd
Dec. 30: A sea of red
Dec. 31: Venice Beach
Jan. 1: Rose Parade
Jan. 1: The Game
Jan. 1: The Game, cont'd
Jan. 2: P.S.

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Photos by Jeff Miller, text by Jeff Iseminger.