The first day of the new year was a sunny day, which was a good sign. (It's almost impossible to see a clear sky in Los Angeles, and some people say that 350 days a year in Southern California are sunny, which is partly true.) ）

Early in the morning, the trio drove to Pasadena, a city located in the San Gabriel Valley, east of Los Angeles.

Because of the large number of tourists in the parade, the highway exit in Pasadena was closed, so I had to drive on, and I took another exit a few kilometers away and took a detour to Colorado Avenue, the main venue of the parade, where many tourists had gathered on both sides of the parade, all waiting for the parade to begin.

Throwing the two beauties on the side of the main road to take a spot, he drove around and finally found a parking lot with a vacant space.

"How much?"

"$40 a morning."

Xiao Yifei stared at the old Mo who was guarding the parking lot.

As a result, Lao Mo became impatient:

"If you don't stop, the back is blocked."

Xiao Yifei glanced in the rearview mirror, damn, really, it's only been less than a minute, and there are actually 4 or 5 cars behind him, but fortunately no one is dripping him. Xiao Yifei took the steering wheel and found another parking lot, but this guy also cost 40 US dollars, which was twice as expensive as usual. Xiao Yifei was too lazy to find other parking lots, so he could only take this knife.

When they returned to the side of the main road, the two beauties were already waiting impatiently:

"Why did it take so long?"

Xiao Yifei told the story of being slaughtered.

"Of course, do you know how many people watch this parade?"

Xiao Yifei knew that Americans also loved to watch the excitement, and even the self-entertaining light-up tractor parade in Callistoga attracted thousands of tourists, plus locals, and tens of thousands of people watched along the way. Since this rose parade is one of the three major celebrations in the United States, it is located in Los Angeles, which has a population of tens of millions. There must have been a lot of people watching.

"There are millions of people at the scene, plus the audience watching the TV broadcast, at least hundreds of millions of viewers, amazing."

Xiao Yifei despised them in his heart, how rare and strange they were, and the audience of China's daily news broadcast exceeded this number, if they encountered a large-scale event like the Spring Festival Gala. The number of viewers is more than one billion, okay. However, Pasadena, with a population of less than 150,000, is flooded with so many tourists at once, and almost everyone is driving, that parking space will indeed be very tight.

According to the supply and demand theory of the capitalist market economy, it is definitely in short supply at this time, and if it is Xiao Yifei, the price of the parking lot will also increase.

"There don't seem to be many people, huh?" Wang Nan looked at the tourists on both sides of the street and said.

"Our location here is not near the rostrum, there are too many people there, my classmate told me, she said that the location is good. There are not many people. ”

Xiao Yifei glanced at the surrounding environment, this is between the starting point and the rostrum, and the surrounding people are all tourists with small families, basically divided into three rows, the first row is sitting on the ground or on the road. The second row is presumably occupied by nearby residents, one by one sitting in chairs. The people in the back could only stand and watch. There is also a parking lot not far away, and there are a lot of trailers in it, and the owners simply get their chairs on the roof of the RV. You drank a beer while waiting for the parade to begin.

"Is this really a thing that so many people watch?" Xiao Yifei was a little skeptical.

"How could it not be, the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl Race. are the two most important things to do in the New Year in Los Angeles, but unfortunately we don't have tickets, otherwise we can go to the Rose Bowl to see. ”

"Forget the Rose Bowl, I'm not interested in that kind of rugby game where the offense lasts less than two minutes for the time being."

Wang Nan echoed:

"Yes, I don't like it either, but Shirley often pulls me to watch."

"How long will this parade take?"

"Three hours. What's wrong? ”

3 hours? If you have to stand for 3 hours. Then Xiao Yifei didn't want to suffer this crime.

"Where can I find a place to sit?" If you stand for that long, I guess it's enough to choke. ”

Wang Nan also nodded in agreement with Xiao Yifei's worries.

"Yes, yes, it costs money."

"There are scalpers too?"

The word scalper Xiao Yifei spoke in Chinese, and Wang Nan explained to the inexplicable Shirley what a scalper was.

"Anyway, there are a lot of people here who came to take up their seats last night."

Xiao Yifei thought: Fortunately, this is California, if this is New York, you dare to sleep outside. The next day, it was popsicles.

"Some of the positions are for you to see, and some are the scalpers you say. However, they occupy a good lot near the main altar on one side, and there is certainly no one here. ”

"So what are you waiting for, let's go, let's see."

The three of them walked to the vicinity of the main platform, where there were indeed more people, and both sides of the street were densely occupied. After a while, Xiao Yifei had a black and thin old Chinese man come over and take the initiative to sell them the position. After some negotiation and spending two hundred dollars, the three of them had a better vantage point to watch the parade.

This rose parade has been around for more than 100 years, and it is said that the immigrants who came here started such an event to be like the villagers in the east. After so many years of development, the Rose Parade has finally become. Think about the cities in the east, where it snows so much at every turn, and even cars are buried in snow, while here in Los Angeles, the sun is shining every day, as long as you wear a thick jacket.

At 8 o'clock in the morning, several police motorcycles lined up in a herringbone and drove past with sirens to announce the official start of the rose cart parade. The first phalanx to come is the band, which begins with a small float with red and yellow roses forming several large texts, 2010, and is even better (acutabovetherest).

White pants, red shirts, high cylinder hats, and beautiful feathers at the top, all of them are composed of high school students in a marching band playing majestic music, walking in a neat pace, slowly passing through. The bunting guards interspersed among the musicians dance the bunting and colored guns in their hands. The surrounding people stood up and cheered, and Xiao Yifei also picked up the camera and kept clicking.

Then there was a team of knights, and then a procession of carriages, and there were people sitting in the carriages and recruiting the audience.

Soon, a float slowly drove up. There were 7 dignified and beautiful Miss Rose sitting in the car. In front of them, there are six princesses wearing red one-shoulder dresses, one of whom seems to be Chinese or Asian. Sitting on the high throne at the end is the Queen of the Roses in a white gown. These seventeen or eighteen-year-old Miss Rose were all selected from among the high school girls in Pasadena, and their bright smiles bloomed on their youthful faces. Xiao Yifei adjusted the focus and gave them a close-up one by one, focusing on the Asian face.

In this way, the knights, the marching band, and the flower workshop drove in. This cruise is much more formal than the self-entertaining cruise in Callistoga. The riders and horses are carefully selected, and the bands are highly trained, well-drafted high school marching bands that have won not only California internal competitions, but also interstate competitions. The floats are even more huge and exquisite, decorated with colorful and delicate roses, which won bursts of applause, cheers and screams from the audience on both sides.

A burst of music with Chinese characteristics sounded, a float slowly drove away, Xiao Yifei and Wang Nan couldn't help but stand up and wave at the float. Because it's a float from China.

In the front section of the float are four majestic war horses, dragging a two-wheeled chariot, and on either side of the chariot are six terracotta warriors and horses in a fighting posture. In the middle of the float is a pavilion with Chinese characteristics, where several artists play the lute, several palace beauties dance to the music, and the emperor and empress on the throne wave to the audience. At the back of the float is the famous Big Wild Goose Pagoda and two adorable pandas. Dozens of beautiful women dressed in pink palace costumes lined the floats, dancing and slowly moving along with the floats.

The narrator told everyone. This is a float jointly launched by Pheasant Terrace and Sanqintai, "Dancing with the Terracotta Warriors". This float with Chinese characteristics. It also won the cheers of foreigners on both sides.

Xiao Yifei's camera follows the terracotta warriors and horses until they are far away. After some knights, some bands, and some floats, another float with Chinese characteristics soon came.

The float was organized by WW's China Airlines and featured the theme of Nazha's troubled sea. A huge dragon with teeth and claws sits in the lower part of the float, followed by a tall Nazha holding a silver spear, staring at the dragon.

In the second half of the parade, a Chinese float came again. This is the "Better City, Better Life" float promoted by the Magic City for the World Expo, and in front of it is the mascot of the World Expo, "Big Tooth Brother", oh no, it's Haibao. The main body in the middle is the China Pavilion of the World Expo, and finally the Oriental Pearl TV Tower in the magic capital. Sitting on the float is the kung fu movie star Da Nose Duang, who is waving his arms vigorously and interacting with the audience on both sides.

Xiao Yifei felt that this float was really not good, but the little actors on both sides of the float were wearing clothes like goldfish, with butterfly wings, and roller skating on their feet, but they were very good-looking, and their movements were very beautiful, really like butterflies dancing. Xiao Yifei's shots basically stay on these little actors.

After a few more floats, there was a roar in the sky, and several warplanes flew overhead, the height was too low, the speed was too fast, and it looked like the Thunderbird livery.

Later, the results of the float competition were announced, and 24 of the 41 floats won the award, among which China Airlines won the international award, the pheasant and Sanqin won the director award, and the largest award was won by the "Wonders of the Mountaintop" of the Rain Bird Company.

Xiao Yifei thought about it for a while, but he didn't remember what this float looked like, and Wang Nan and Shirley could only shake their heads about this question, and they also forgot.

The long parade of floats finally came to an end, and the tourists dispersed in twos and threes. Xiao Yifei and the others followed the instructions of the Chinese old man who had just sold them the seats, and came to the static display area not far away, where all the exhibitor cars will be on static display for three days for tourists to visit. There is also a performance area next to it for these floats to promote what they need.

Xiao Yifei and the others finally found the award-winning "Wonders of the Mountain", which turned out to be the theme of a mountain gorilla family. It's just some mountains, trees, and then a few gorillas and small orangutans, and some butterflies, birds, etc., Xiao Yifei himself named the float here "King Kong".

"This can also win a grand prize?"

Regarding Xiao Yifei's contempt, Shirley and Wang Nan circled around the float a few times and nodded in agreement.

"I guess it's big."

Shirley's sarcasm made Xiao Yifei and Wang Nan laugh.

"I don't think it's as good as that puppy's skiing."

Wang Nan said that the puppy skiing is a float, on which a snow machine is used to make a ski slope several meters long, the person standing on the snow slope, put a pair of skis on it, and then another puppy will stand on the board, slide down from the top of the slope, and then the person at the bottom of the ski slope will send the skis to the top with a leash, and another puppy will slide down.

This float, which is obviously supposed to be advertised by a ski resort, is indeed very popular with applause and laughter from the surrounding tourists when it passes by.

After lunch, the trio did not go home right away, but continued to drive east to Arcadia, a neighbor in Pasadena. It is what many media outlets call Ermei Village (ErnaiVillage). In fact, this title is somewhat exaggerated, and another nickname is more suitable, that is, the Chinese Beverly Hills.

There are more and more Chinese people buying houses in Arcadia, Rowland Heights and other places. The majority of buyers here are wealthy newcomers, and with the arrival of another wave of immigration, the proportion of Chinese in these areas has become more and more significant, becoming the largest ethnic group in these cities, squeezing the original white people out of these areas.

Xiao Yifei and the others came here, of course, not to see the second wife or the house, they came to see the Los Angeles County Botanical Garden.

Be very careful when driving around the Botanical Gardens, as a peacock can pop up on the road at any time. If you are not careful and you press them, it is against the law, because Arcadian law states that on all roads, peacocks have priority. And if the residents here encounter peacocks running into the yard to forage for food and play, they can't drive them away, otherwise they will also be punished. It's no wonder that Arcadia is also known as Peacock City, and it also has peacocks on its coat of arms.

It's a pity that the time is not right, if you come in spring, you can see the flowers in full bloom in the garden, and if you come in summer, you can enjoy a rare coolness surrounded by green trees. If it's autumn, you can enjoy a variety of colorful plants and fruits. This winter, the beautiful tail feathers of the male peacock are not beautiful at all, and the plants are also wintering, only some evergreen plants have lost a lot of leaves.

After three months of visiting the slightly bleak botanical gardens, the three returned home, and in the following days, the three of them went to Palm Springs to find a resort to stay for three days. This time, Xiao Yifei went to the World War II Aircraft Museum, the Indian Museum, etc., and also went to hot springs, golf, and skiing. (To be continued......)