Jacksonville Veterans Day Parade

As I mentioned last week, we spent most of our Veterans Day Weekend cooped up inside thanks to lingering illness for Ellie and me. However, we did pull it together for a couple hours on Veterans Day proper to get out to the Jacksonville Veterans Day Parade. This was Ellie's first parade experience, and given her current love of marching bands, I thought she would thoroughly enjoy it. I was not wrong.

Because old New York habits die hard, we arrived far earlier than we actually needed to in order to secure a good spot near the start of the parade route. So, we had some time to kill, which we spent with snacks, cuddles, and watching Eric whistle with a blade of grass.

Pre-parade snacks

Cuddling in the grass

Ellie LOVED Eric's grass whistling

Oh, these two.

At last, the parade was underway. As expected, Ellie loved the bands in particular. She was also pretty interested in the throwing of candy, and soon got into the whole thing by waving hello to passing cars and floats and proudly waving her little flag.

Here comes the parade!

Ellie's favorite part (and mine)

Fire trucks

Keeping an eye on things while she checks out the free candy

Hi, parade!

Two flags!

Waving flags with her Daddy

We liked this float!

Jacksonville Gator Club

Ellie is a parade natural!

I was still feeling pretty worn out, so we didn't make it to the end of the parade. But, we sure had a nice time while we were there. It was a beautiful day for such an event, and I think that we have started Ellie off on a solid parade-loving path!