The Seafair Torchlight Parade

Sure, it was cold.  It was rainy, and there were more than a few weirdoes in the crowd, but the parade occurred.  Here are some shots:

 It began like so many things - with cops.

There's Felix Hernandez, so close you could PUNCH him.  But why would anybody want to do that?  As you can see, he got all dressed up for his grand marshaling.

There's Robinson Cano.  Didn't the Mariners have a game last night?  Did these guys skip out on that?

Here's Dow Constantine.  What kind of name is "Dow?" It's more like a sound than a name.
  

My favorite float of the night and perhaps ever.  It's a pickle.

 Orca balloon...

Alaska Airlines balloon...

Giant potato...

On the corner of 4th & Blanchard, I was surrounded by all these skeevy people.  At one point, a nearby lady with kids asked a couple of the guys if they wouldn't say the word "motherfucker" so much.  They said they'd try and then started saying it even more.  There were also these bummy guys from the senior low-income building on 3rd panhandling everybody in the area.  And this one drunk woman kept running into the street to high-five marchers and tell them that she was a viking because her mom was Norwegian.  She kept hugging me and telling me that she was a viking.  I decided to move down the block when all of these elements combined.  This is the last picture I took.  It's Army guys with all the state flags.  They were just kind of standing there for a long time.  The pacing was not very good.  When there weren't two-block gaps, people were standing around.
  

I usually hang out till the dragon passes, then leave.  This year, I left early.  This is a picture of the dragon on TV.  So at least I got a shot of the dragon.  Hooray for me.

So OK, even if the weather had been warm and non-rainy, it still would have been kind of a bummer of a parade.  Well, I hope next year will be better.