mmm-yoso!!! is primarily a food blog, but there are many events surrounding meals. Both Kirk and Cathy like to write about that aspect of the eventual meals. Today, Cathy is writing.
The 2018 Tournament of Roses, with the theme "Making A Difference", is over. There were numerous events and activities between Christmas and December 31-the Bands and Equestrian Units had presentations, you could visit float decorating places and a two day event, "Live on Green". The parade and football game were on January 1. Following the parade, the floats lined up on Sierra Madre (at the end of the 5.5 mile parade route) and were on display (the Post Parade Showcase of Floats) from 1 p.m. on January 1 and again from 9 a.m. on January 2.
There was a little advertised way to get into all of the Official Tournament events for one very small price- 
The Event Pass Pin was sold for the first time this year at the Tournament House, the Pasadena Museum of History, Vromans Bookstore and online for $10! (The fee just to view the floats at the Showcase was $15 per person this year).
There were road tests of the floats in July, August, September, October and November. The Mister and I helped to decorate floats in early December. There are more details and excellent reporting of all Tournament events at this link to The Rose Examiner.
I could not decide how to show you the floats: there were 44 in the Parade. Six were not judged, six were self constructed and the others were constructed by four professional float companies. 24 were recognized with awards. All of the floats were beautiful, detailed, magnificent and decorated by volunteers, especially the week following Christmas when the live flowers were delivered. Each float deserved to be recognized.
So, I had to pick and choose through my photos (so you wouldn't be bored). There were surreal floats.
There were little details on every float…
(These guys were on the 'off camera' side of their float, you never saw them if you were watching the parade on television.)
One of the record breaking floats held 100 people- two farmers from every state in the Union. 
There were cute floats (but all of them were cute, weren't they?)
I could mention the mishaps which happened at the end of the parade route…
(it seems the float operators forgot (or weren't warned as to when) to collapse the float at the end of the route, resulting in some damage).
It was a great theme, a great parade and I have at least two photos of every float. If there is one in particular you would like to see, I can add it at the end of this post. THIS is a link to the entire parade from KTLA TV
Soo went to see the 2018 floats, too! Maggie also has a great point of view of the post parade.
But now, we return to the Food portion of the blog… 
We got to Cream Pan around 7 a.m., ordering the same items (ham and cheese croissant and a cheese cracker) we had on our last visit along with a loaf of sesame bread. The cheese based items were a light breakfast. Cream Pan 602 El Camino Real Tustin, CA 92780 Website
We had parked off of Washington Street and walked to the Blue entrance to the Post Parade Showcase of floats. On the way back to the car, we passed Arsen's House of Cookies, where we have stopped several times previously. Mrs. Arsen recognizes us and we catch up, about once a year.
We purchased some sweets for cc and for ourselves.
As well as four of the (still warm, freshly made) cheese/herb pastries on the counter. Total cost? $9. The bonus was I received an Arsen's Bakery calendar (last photo, bottom right) which will be used a lot this year.
We headed East, didn't want to take the freeway and ended up on Foothill in Monrovia. 
This looked like an interesting place to stop for lunch. We hadn't noticed it before, but Yelp has posts going back to 2007…
The menu has breakfasts, Greek, Mexican and American (salads, burgers and sandwich) choices. 
The half pound burger ($6.39) was char-grilled and had that flavor I crave. It was cooked to order (medium rare), served on a fresh toasted bun with 'everything' (lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion and mayonnaise). As with every establishment that serves Greek/gyros, the onion rings ($3.79) were handmade, whole onions, sweet, properly fried with a cornmeal based breading. (The ranch sauce was an extra 50¢ and wasn't even necessary.)
Since we were in this part of the State which serves pastrami at almost every fast food joint (I need to do a post of all the taco shops up here which have pastrami on the signage), The Mister ordered a Pastrami sandwich ($8.99). When asked what he wanted on it, he only asked for mustard and pickles…and that's what was received. The bread to meat ratio is so wonderfully in favor of the meat…which was smoky, peppery and lean. A wonderful sandwich.
T Burgers 226 W. Foothill Drive Monrovia, CA 91016 (626)357-4844
This was the start to 2018. Almost 12,000 steps of walking and wonderful food. So far, resolutions kept!
The theme of the 2019 Tournament of Roses Rose Parade: 
the floats are always so beautiful!
I always love your float posts, especially this one! Thank you for sharing Cathy. I really enjoyed watching the parade this year, and even more so after having seen the float road posts when the floats were in various stages of development.
Great price on those onion rings and also the pastries (Cream Pan is always a fave); the mini cake slices and the cheese pastry from Arsen’s were delicious.
So much work is put into the design, construction, testing and decorating, Kat. It all begins again-soon: the President and Theme for 2019 will be announced before the end of this month…truly a year long process.
Thanks, cc; I like trying to share and explain how things work…that nothing is ‘magic’ and takes time. The food at T Burger was wonderful- The Mister pretty much always orders rings when he sees them on the menu and, again, these were great. We really like that little bakery so much.
Thanks for helping make the floats and showing the completed ones. We visited on the 2nd to look at floats too. Was awesome seeing and smelling them. 🙂
Nice photos! I didn’t get to the Showcase of Floats this year, too exhausted. It is a great place to get photos of the side of the floats opposite the side you were sitting, though.
Just one thing–there are six self-built floats: Burbank, La Canada Flintridge, South Pasadena, Sierra Madre, Downey, and Cal Poly Universities.
Looking forward to next year–once I’m done with this year!
It’s a fun volunteer job, Soo. I missed seeing you at the Post Parade (ha-probably 100K people were there; I was wearing a Petal Pushers shirt). When doing the dry decorating, we could really smell the coffee grounds being placed under the ‘scarves’ on the Armenian float- about 50 yards away from ‘our’ float (Honda).
Thanks, Laura; I corrected the post. The only problem with some off camera views is the sun-both during the parade and at Post Parade. There are just so many details on every float, I wish there was more time. Very much looking forward to the 2019 Parade and events too!
I looked for you Cathy but missed you. I posted my Rose Parade float adventure at http://www.hungryones.com and linked to your reviews.
those floats were so cool! i really like the parrot one. i think the last ‘parade’ i watched was at mardi gras block party with 50% muscle or low rider cars. we did join in on a fun of a pride parade during our Europe trip. i have yet to post about that city. btw glad everyone is recovering nicely from this winter bug!
Wow Cathy great post! Think you love the Rose Parade floats just as much as I do! Never get tired of hearing about all the details. So lovely you volunteer each year, I’ve always wanted to but never seem to find the time. For my Rose Post Parade review I’ll be linking your reviews as well. Hope that’s okay with you. :>)
Thanks, Lynn. Parades are fun and The Tournament of Roses is ‘America’ to me. Go to sleep watching the ball drop on one coast and wake up to see the parade on the other coast. I feel so fortunate to be able to participate in some small way.
I linked Soo’s post and will link yours too, Maggie. Thanks. Also added the bottom of this post- the theme and design for 2019. The new President announced it a couple of weeks ago- “The Melody of Life”.