Rainbow Connection

PRIDE APLENTY: Sunday, we attended the Seattle Pride parade for the first time. What an experience! It's one of the largest pride parades in the nation, and we knew there would be a big crowd, so we checked out a map of the parade route, and on Saturday night, went and stashed a car (filled with lawn chairs, rain tarps, blankets, snacks and such) a block away from its start. Sunday morning, we caught an 8:30 bus to downtown, retrieved our supplies, and easily secured front row spots in the parade's first block. Score!

I was happy to find he kindly looked right at my camera during one shot. Way to hit the mark, George! His acting training is showing through. :)\

George's husband Brad was with him. Brad had on a great hat featuring an old Mariners trident logo on the front and on the side there was a riff on Hall of Fame broadcaster Dave Neihaus' famous "My oh my!" proclamation, with the second myyy being spelled with a few extra ys, as a nod to George Takei's book "Oh Myyy, There Goes the Internet."  Brad also runs a popular Facebook page "Oh Myyy" 

We were surprised to see Seattle-based rapper Macklemore in the parade, as that wasn't pre-announced. He was riding top a sweet old Cadillac Seville.   The crowd pretty much freaked out when he came rolling by.

There were politicos in the parade, as well, including Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and his husband, who is a Seattle Parks Department administrator.  

There were lots of colorful costumes. We saw a Caped Crusader ... 

and some rainbow dalmatians.

There were a number of church contingents, including some unofficial marchers before the parade. They were warning parade watchers to repent and turn away from sin and debauchery (as they define it). 

They were met with smiles and polite rebukes and reminders to "Judge not, that ye be not judged." (Matthew 7:1-3 KJV). 

Other church groups participating were open and embrace diversity. In fact, my favorite sign of the day was carried by a woman in a church contingent. It read "I love gay people. Or, as I call them, 'people."  

Good one. :) 

We saw lots of motorcycles (including a group called Hells Fairies!).  

                            
There were some cool cars, too. Check out this funky paint job!

And this "Barbie's Dream Hearse" was my personal favorite. 

There were dozens of corporate groups marching, including 'GLAmazons' from Amazon. 

The lovely person above bought Annabelle a beaded necklace at 9:30 that morning, 90 minutes before the parade's start. 

The event was billed as the city's biggest ever pride parade. It started right on time at 11 and let me tell you, it was FOUR ENTIRE HOURS of fun. That's a long darn parade. 

And since we were on the first half block of it, the kids got So. Much. Swag. Bracelets, necklaces, sunglasses, t-shirts, stickers, temporary tattoos, postcards, sunscreen, shopping bags, and candy, Candy, CANDY. At one point Annabelle declared, "This is better than Halloween. We don't even have to go anywhere - they come to us!"

CJ and Annabelle probably got more than their fair share of stuff because they were decked out in My Little Pony hoodies, and CJ had his Rainbow Dash socks on with shorts, and Annabelle had on pants she'd made with fabric that had many a rainbow printed on it. 

All told, it was big fun to see so many happy people in one place. 

You can check out my whole Seattle Pride photo album on Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/9430651@N03/

FLOATING SAUCER:  Saturday afternoon we had one TV on World Cup soccer and another on NASA-TV, watching live coverage of the first Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) test flight. 

In the future, NASA expects technologies like LDSD will be used in order to get larger payloads to Mars, and pave the way for future human explorers. The technology is expected to enable delivery of supplies and materials needed for long-duration missions to the Red Planet.

As we watched, a high-altitude balloon launch occurred from the U.S. Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai, Hawaii. the Hawaiian island facility.  The balloon lifted the saucer-shaped LDSD aloft, to a height of about 120,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, at which point it dropped the saucer.  The vehicle splashed down in the ocean at approximately 2:35 p.m. our time, the engineering test flight concluded. Fortunately, the test vehicle hardware, black box data recorder and parachute were all recovered.

Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
For more information about the LDSD space technology demonstration mission, go to: http://go.usa.gov/kzZQ