Parade and Party

The whole reason we stopped at the Rancho Oso rv park was to be in a position to visit my brother Tim and his wife Carolyn.  We did so on four different occasions.  One day we took the bike to Lompoc (Lahm poke) and sat around their living room chatting for several hours.  We all adjourned for a couple of hours at a local cafe along with one of their grandchildren, Nicholas for food and more talk.  Back at the house we wound up the day with more talk before we headed home.  A couple of days later we went back to Lompoc for their annual Flower Festival Parade.  Up until a couple of years ago Lompoc was the flower capital of the world, growing seeds for Burpee and stock flowers for parades.  The growers sold out  but Lompoc still holds its festival parade and festivities.  The flowers decorating the floats were grown in Lompoc. 

As the colors were presented, a woman sitting on our left berated us for not standing and doffing our hats.  She was right!

Princess and court showing the Spanish influence.

Down the street there seemed to be a reviewing stand.  All of the entries slowed down or stopped and performed there which made large gaps in the parade.  This little girl amused us by boogying down.

Sitting is one of their granddaughters,  Tim, Me, Carolyn.

Spanish representatives

Native people represented

The clowns were in attendance.  Not shown are the Shriners, high school cheerleaders on fire trucks, and council members.

This entry was titled Wells Fargo, then and now.  .

We never did find out why the pirates showed up.  The wind was blowing so fiercely that most of the banners were unreadable.  We liked this group though.  There was actually someone in the creature costume!

From the parade we walked to the little local history  consisting of an historical Victorian house, a blacksmith shop, carriage shop and other building of various uses.  The house is unique among the many that we have toured in that you can actually walk through all of the rooms.  It was used primarily as a museum to display collections as compared to actually representing the way people lived in it. 

After our tour we walked back to the home of Carolyn's son Teddy and his wife Theresa for their annual party.

This year Teddy served some delicious carnitas--pork shoulders boiled in lard for hours, then pulled and served in soft tacos with a delicious topping of chopped vegetables.  I don't know what all went into the topping but one was cilantro.  Yummy!  Various dishes were carried in to complete the meal.

Brother Tim and I waiting patiently for the party to begin.  Notice our jackets and my sweatshirt.  The sun was warm but the air was brisk.  Everyone seems to be used to it but us.  They were wearing shorts and T's!

Backyard ready for guests to chow down.

Next we'll take a tour of the Lompoc Valley.

Louise and Duane