Only in the Desert!

Only in the desert will you see an event such as this one. A winter-time parade at night. Phoenix has had one for years. We are ashamed that we never took our family to this parade when they were kids. It is great! It is sponsored by APS - who Doug has worked for during the past 25+ years. And we could have bought tickets for CHEAP and had bleacher seating AND free cookies AND free hot chocolate AND free hot cider AND a free fun flashing light giveaway! And for longtime members of the Cheap Club you would have thought we would have discovered it sooner. But nooooo, we missed this one - until this past Saturday.



Anyway, I told Doug that I wanted to go this year. But we didn't buy tickets. We were going to deal with the masses of people on the sidewalks and just elbow ourselves into a space and stand and watch the parade. So when I mentioned it to someone in the ward she said her husband works for APS and had some tickets and they might have 2 extras. Shecalled me later and we picked up the extra tickets. It was wonderful!



We parked and walked to the parade route and right in the middle of the parade route there were a bunch of bleachers set up for APS people who had tickets. While the sidewalks were already crowded with people the bleachers were relatively empty. So we went through the gate and they gave us the free light-up thingy to go around our neck and some 3-D type glasses that showed multiple prisms when you looked at light through them. They also told us about the cookies and hot drinks. This was getting better all the time. We came prepared with warm coats and hats and a blanket but the weather was relatively mild and we didn't even use the blanket.



We were there about an hour early. But waiting for the parade wasn't too bad. We were easily entertained by the myriads of kids who were playing in the middle of the street. Some were playing soccer. Some had scooters, skateboards, bikes, trikes, in-line skates, etc. Some were tossing frisbees. And when the occasional policeman on a motorcycle came through the kids just barely moved to let them squeeze by. It was like being at a park. The activity was constant. And despite our concerns - when the parade actually started to get close, the parents claimed their kids and kept them out of harms way.

There was even an announcer that told all about each of the entries. So pretty soon we could hear the tenor voice saying: "Welcome to the APSh Feshtival of Lightsh. Thish year we have forty shix entriesh. Thish firsht one hash over forty thoushand lightsh." Do you get the picture. It was like the lishp that we do for fun. We sort of got a chuckle out of that. Why is it that so many people that announce or do the news or other public speaking things lishp? I don't know but it wash funny!

It was very dark and each "float" that came by was lighted with shiny blinking lights. There were the some larger helium balloons - miniatures of the ones in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in NYC. There were some bands who marched with lights on their uniforms and instruments. The band who actually played their instruments got bonus points from us. There were even baton twirlers that had their batons lit up. But as the performers and floats passed by we thought it was really well done. We completely enjoyed the event. So if anyone is here next year around the first Saturday in December - we'll spring for the tickets and take you to the APS Festival of Lights Parade - an event that can be successful - Only in the Desert!