Pasadena & The Tournament of Roses

I have lived here in Southern California permanently since 1973 and this is the first time we have traveled to Pasadena to see the floats.  I said floats because we did not brave the freezing temperatures to observe the parade, but visited afterward to just see the floats.  These floats are truly remarkable as they are covered exclusively with flowers, seeds, grass, spices, and crushed and combed bark.  People travel from around the world to see this spectacle.  This was the 126th annual event and also is associated with the Rose Bowl College Football Playoff games.  I am not an avid fan of football or any other sports for that matter and not particularly crazy about parades either.  How un American!!!  That said, if you don't mind mingling with 10,000 or more tourists, this should be on your bucket list.  Each float represents thousands of hours of labor and no two are the same.  I think we walked 2 miles to see them all.  We parked at the Rose Bowl for free and caught a bus to the area where the floats were parked.  The bus was $3 round trip and $10 entrance fee to walk the floats.  Here is a small sampling of what we feasted our eyes on.

Prado Regional Park

On Dec. 31, 2014, we stayed here for 4 nights to close out 2014 with our friends Kathy & Grant.  This park is very nice and the sites are level and many long pull through sites.  Ours was over 100 feet long and had full hookups including 50 amp service.  There is a stocked fishing lake, clubhouse, baseball field available to use for an additional fee.  We paid $45 per night which was a $10 premium per night due to the holiday weekend.  Your camping fee allows entrance to 4 people without an additional fee per person and fishing required a California fishing licence in addition to $8 per person fishing fee.  You are also charged an entrance fee which was $10 this week end.  I did not see anyone catch a fish.  The grounds were well taken care of.  You can rent the clubhouse and ball fields on an hourly basis.  I feel this is a little pricey, but I rate it F**** and would return again.  There were no vacant spaces while we were there so reservations are necessary which is another $5 fee.  My biggest gripe was that our site along with many others had the hookups on the wrong side of the site.  Our site was set up on a one way road and our hookups were on our camping side.  The alternative would be to drive the wrong way into your pull through site and then run your water, sewer, and electrical hoses underneath your rig.

This county park is located in Chino Hills which is in San Bernardino County.  It is within an hour drive to most attractions such as Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, Hollywood, Orange county beaches, and Pasadena which is why we selected this site to visit the Rose Parade Floats after the parade.  We woke up to frost on the ground in the mornings as the temps dipped down into the 30's which is cold for us southern Californians.  That said, we spent most of our weekend inside the motorhome with the heater running full time.