The Rose Bowl and New Years in Pasedena

I am 38......
And last year I started getting emails from singleseniorsmeet.com.

Really. I'm not kidding.

And it's all because I spent New Years of 2013 in Los Angeles, California riding around on a tour bus with older folks...and it honestly was pretty awesome.

My grandma Beryl has always had a dream to go to the Rose Bowl New Years Parade in Pasadena, California.  So this past year my mother decided she was going to take her... And I ended up on the trip too.

Here's some pictures of my mom, Grandma Beryl, Mom, and me.

At the Airport

We were organized into tour busses to see various attractions for a couple days before the actual parade.  On the very first day we were supposed to be on the bus at 8:15 a.m.  While my mom and grandma went on to board the bus, I ran back to the hotel room to grab a couple things.  I made it back out to the bus at 8:13.  Which for those of you who know me, is pretty stinkin awesome...2 whole minutes early!?
Once I arrived at the bus, however, I realized that I was the very LAST one to get on, and they had been wondering where I was?!

At this point I made a little "Note to self":  When the old folk say 8:15, what they're really saying is 8:00 Sharp.  Who knew?

For those of you who don't know about the Rose Bowl, what makes it so amazing is that the floats are made ENTIRELY of organic material - top to bottom - every inch.  AND not only that, but the colors are all the natural organic colors from the substance.  There is no dying of any materials.  So if you want a yellow eye on a frog, you might use the spice Tumeric.  Even the signs that look like they are printed material are actually substances such as rice, onion seed, and winterberries.  And they're not thrown on by a machine or in mass quantities - they are placed on by hand.  The process is amazing and the results are stunning.   After going "backstage" to see a window into the making of these floats...I will never watch The Rose Bowl Parade the same again.  It was incredible.  Here are some of the pictures from the preview we got in a warehouse where floats were being made.

While on the tour, we also went to Lawry's steak house.  Fantastic Food.  Historic Restaurant.  Loved it.

In addition to that was the Ronald Reagan Museum.  We waited to get off the bus for what seemed like forever.  Two crabby old ladies were behind me.  At one point one of the ladies was checking her voicemail on speakerphone.  I wanted to jab my eye out with a stick.  But eventually we got off and started through the museum.  We got to walk through Air Force 1, which was pretty cool.  However the rest of the museum was so crowded, I opted to not even go through the whole thing.  But if you're in the area, it might be worth a trip.

Outside of the Ronald Reagan Museum

We also went to Warner Brothers and got to sit on the retired "Friends" T.V. show couch!

New Years Eve was spent with the Seniors in a banquet hall.  Dinner and Dancing.  Although it was certain I would not be meeting any handsome, single men at the event due to the fact that I was one of the few people there under 55...I'm quite certain I will never experience a New Years quite like it again :)

And the next day was The Rose Bowl Parade.

All in all, this trip was a one of a kind.  I treasure the time that I got to spend with my grandma and my mom. So despite the fact that I'm now getting marketing from singleseniors.com now...it was a beautiful experience to get to be a part of one of grandma's dreams coming true.

(And let's be honest...there may come a day when I actually open those marketing emails instead of deleting them.  I wonder how young they accept gals on that dating site?)