Balboa Island Boat Parade!

My family used to go to this boat parade when we were young and I decided that if Allison loves seeing lights on the houses, it would be a fun experience to see them on boats! So we made the long drive to Newport and had a little fun with Lee and Jana and Carmen. Once we finally found parking we had to walk a ways but Dan took most of the load.

Of course once we saw this ride, Allison HAD to go on it...twice.


Then, she bravely said she wanted to go on the ferris wheel. There was no way Dan was going on it-plus he had Cole in the backpack, so I took her. We waited in line and she was all excited and when it was our turn to get on, she got cold feet so I picked her up and put her on it. Once we got going, she LOVED it. I'll admit, my stomach was a little squeemish at the top-everytime. And when Carmen who went with Lee almost leaped out of the ride while yelling Jana's name, desperate to be saved, they decided they had had enough and they were on the opposite end of the ride so of course we get stopped at the very top. Allison loved it though so it was fun for me.


We had to wait quite some time before the boats were coming by our area but Cole couldn't last that long. I forgot a hat for Cole so Jana kindly lent me one of her darling hand knitted caps which looked so darn cute on him- he might have preferred blue but Carmen the girlie girl only goes as far as red when it comes to straying from the true girl colors :) He was so tired that I guess when the "lights went out" he figured it was time for bed.


There were some boats that were decorated to the hilt but others were a little weak and Dan was sure to let some of them know it. It wasn't quite like I remembered it probably because I remember watching it on the sand on a blanket and seeing the boats come so close by the shore but we had a pretty good view from this dock. Dan was dragging his feet a bit but once we were there, he had a good time too...and he said it would be a good tradition to start :)