So this was my first Cherry Festival as a home owner in downtown Traverse City.  This past Saturday was the last day of the festival.  Among other activities that day was the Cherry Royale (or something like that) parade.  Having only attended small scale parades in the past, I didn’t think all that much about the parade route running by my front lawn.  I was surprised when I came home from a late day of Interlochen webcasting on Friday to find strings of chairs tied to street signs.  6:00 am Saturday morning, I was awoken by a porta-potty being installed on the sidewalk next to my bay window.  8:00 am people had erected scaffolding that would serve as stadium style seating.  10:00 am people are starting to line the street.  11:00 am there is no room along the sidewalks.  People are starting to sit in my lawn.  Then it began.

The above video was of one of the first floats to pass by.  The entire event went on for around three hours and would go no to include a dozen marching band, a helicopter flyover, and a marching clown band.  Next year I will be sure to stake out my front yard as parade viewing space for me and mine (sorry to selfish), but the view from the stoop wasn’t so bad.