Sunday, November 12, 2017

HOUSTON ASTROS WORLD SERIES VICTORY PARADE

Friday, November 3 - We are headed to downtown Houston this morning to attend the Houston Astros World Series victory parade with our daughter, Carrie.

Carrie, Stacy, Holly.
Carrie, Stacy, Holly

us

She has a spot all picked out in her parking deck across from where she works. She blocked off a large section on the third floor so we can see the parade from above. She has a whole group of friends meeting her there to watch the parade. 

parking deck

This is a reflection of the parking deck in the windows of Carrie’s building.
Carrie's building

The traffic was horrible, so we rode the train into the main street station and walked from there.

free metro

We could barely move along the sidewalks. Thousands and thousands of people. We had to move into the street, but we finally got to our location.  We later learned that there were so many people riding the light rail train that it became overwhelmed and had to leave people waiting at the stops. Luckily we arrived almost four hours early and successfully reached our stop.

Small example of the crowd.
Astros Parade

We had quite a wait for the parade to begin. Of course, we enjoyed a few adult beverages, lots of laughs with Carrie‘s friends, and a lot of people watching. The streets were alive with cheering and all kinds of crazy behavior. People just having a good time no problems whatsoever. But there certainly was a huge police presence. That’s good. As a matter fact on the top floor of the parking deck where we were watching the parade, they had a SWAT team. Scary but reassuring.    

On the ground.
police presense

There were sharp shooters on all the surrounding buildings. From the reflection of Carrie’s building, can you see the sharp shooter on our parking deck?
sharp shooter

We passed the time by tearing up paper and making confetti. Paul had brought a big bag from our paper shredder but of course Carrie needed more.

What is a parade without some confetti! We made tons and tons of it.
confetti making

Finally the parade arrived at our location and oh what a wonderful experience. The Astro players were riding on huge hook and ladder fire trucks. There were bands and of course cheering like crazy. Everybody was having such a great time.

Texas Southern University's Ocean of Soul Marching Band was excellent.
DSC09362

Need we explain.
Clydesdale

Astro’s mascot, Orbit.
DSC09399

Let the confetti fly.
confetti

George Springer, MVP of the World Series.
George Springer

Astros
Astros

Astros

Astros

What the street looked like at the end of the parade.
Astros parade

What it looked like below us after the parade.
confetti

Carrie even got named MVP by the crowd for popping a foaming champagne bottle over the edge of the parking deck after the parade. Yep....pretty crazy.   

Yes, this crowd is looking up at Carrie. Everyone was taking photos of her. After she popped the cork, the crowd busted out with MVP, MVP, MVP. It was amazing.
Carrie and crowd

There were hundreds of people cheering Carrie on.
Carrie and crowd

After the parade, we headed back to the train station and grabbed our train for the 20 to 30 minute ride to our truck. Unfortunately with all the crowds and all the stops, it took nearly an hour to reach our destination on the train. The newspapers and TV stations reported that over a million people attended the parade. We believe it! We then had a short 20 minute drive  back to the Houston Elks Lodge RV Campground. 

We sure had a great time cheering on the Houston Astros World Series champs. Too bad it could not have been the Cleveland Indians but seeing the Astros do it for the city of Houston after all they have been through was a wonderful experience. A fabulous day. Thanks Carrie for having us join your celebration.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y’all back real soon. Have a great day!