350

Today was the Gasparilla Children's parade. Katey glammed up in her do-rag, tattoos and pirate shirt and we headed down to the parade with our friends Laurie and Phil and their boys. As usual, we got reserved seating which is so much nicer with all the insane crowds. This year the seats were assigned and we got Row 2 and it turned out to be "the" place to be. Katey and the boys were able to get right down on the ground behind the gate and they were literally pelted with beads. Actually, Katey wasn't as much pelted, as people were spotting her, walking right over and handing her beads. She was SO adorable (yeah, we already know that, right?), waving and yelling that people were making bee-lines over to give her beads. While all of that was happening, we all were in our seats catching beads for her too. By the time we left there, we had 350 strands of beads.........no kidding, we counted! That's not to mention the Frisbee, the football, the stuffed animals (3) and the candy that she got. (I tossed the candy......not from strangers, thank you very much!) At one point, some one pelted a huge strand of big silver beads our way and, while the girl behind me got them, they hit me in the face on the way over my head and knocked the lens out of my sunglasses! They hit me so hard that we couldn't even find the lens.......it must have flown out of the general area. I have wanted new sunglasses for a while, but I didn't want to HAVE to go buy more. Lucky that I did have them on though because I might have lost an eye and been a true pirate, patch and all! ;) The parade lasted for 3 hours and then there were fireworks. We watched those for a while then bolted to beat the traffic and get dinner. Katey didn't get into bed until about 9:20.........exhausted. I'm not too far behind. Great day though.........glad it only comes around once a year!