500 Festival Parade

Another first for me today... which is crazy, since I've lived in Indy for nearly 13 years and downtown, even, for almost four years! But in all my time here, I never made my way over to see the 500 Festival Parade.

This was a good year to go. Eric had an opportunity to get tickets (yes - if you want to sit in one of the many bleacher seats, you have to have a ticket... for a parade), so he did. This particular ticket even included lunch. Bonus, since the parade started at noon. This is the biggest parade Indy puts on (I think...), as it combines both Memorial Day, and the Indy 500 festivities, including all the drivers. There's actual floats in this parade, too, with special IndyCar shaped tow vehicles. There's even those giant balloons I thought they only had in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Of course there's all your standard stuff. High school bands, the Shriner's (in corvettes, not mini-cars/go-carts), horses, and 'famous people' waving to the crowd.

Our seats were near the last leg of the parade, though we still had a radio station nearby, announcing all the participants. The day itself was about perfect... maybe a tad on the warm side for a day in May. But it was still nice to sit in the sunshine for a few hours and just take a break from the norm.

The parade, itself was enjoyable, though I don't feel the need to go every year. It was pretty cool seeing all the floats, which are quite detailed, and even seeing the drivers, who seem to truly enjoy this 'time off' as they cruise the parade route with their families. I can see how this would be a fun parade for a kid to see, too. The balloons seemed to be a lot of kids' characters, like Dr. Suess characters or other cartoons.

So with this in the books, I think I've experienced all aspects of the Indy 500/"Month of May" that everyone gets so hyped up about. Except Pole Day. But I think I might of done that once, actually, early on. Oh, and they added a new race to the month this year, the Grand Prix of Indy, which is a road race. But I've done the Mini-Marathon, Fast Friday, Community Day, Carb Day, Race Day, Parade, the random day of practice... I guess I haven't experienced any of the balls/galas or charity events... but is that really part of the experience, since I can do those any time of year for different causes? Yeah... don't think it really matters. I say I've gotten the full experience.