January 6, 2020 – mmm-yoso

Welcome back to reading mmm-yoso!!!, a food blog, on this beautiful January day. Cathy is writing and the first part of this post is about the 2020 Tournament of Roses Rose Parade Showcase of Floats, and at the end is the part about the food we ate that day.

When the Rose Parade ends, the floats line up end to end on Sierra Madre Boulevard and they can be viewed from about 1 p.m. on January 1 and from 7 a.m.- 4 p.m. on January 2. There are three entrances, each one easily found with a colored balloon (you can see the red balloon here).

The Theme of the 2020 Parade, "The Power of Hope" logo was on the Opening float, parked in the Pasadena High School parking lot.
The Burbank Tournament of Roses Association presented "Rise Up", depicting a mythical Phoenix rising from the ashes (of the 2018 California wildfires) to create hope, rebirth and renewal.
"Hope Knows No Limits", presented by Shriners Hospital for Children celebrated the carefree spirit of childhood that is born of Hope. Notice the 'child' on the swing has a prosthetic leg."First Responders Bring Hope, Presented by the Oddfellows and Rebekahs and had multiple First Responders, in uniform, riding the float and being applauded along the Parade route.
"Hope Keeps Us Going" by the City of Alhambra was a cute contribution to the variety of 46 floats along the route.
"The Voyage of Hope-1620" presented by General Society of Mayflower Descendents embodied the parade theme in that the 12 passengers who embarked on the journey in a cargo ship 400 years ago were motivated by the hope for freedom religion and a better way of life.
Details of so many of the floats are missed when viewing on television. the Welcome Credit Union float, "Hope Creates Community" showed the story of a community coming together to help a young (squirrel) family fix up their new 'tree home'. Such detail.

Speaking of details, here are some close ups of signage on some of the floats:
So many of the float designs also had details you might have missed if you were watching the Parade on television.

46 floats, thousands of volunteers, tens of thousands of man hours. Impossible to document it all; I have over 300 photos. This post has links to all of the float road tests we attended. This is a link to Phoenix Decorating Company, one of three float builders (in addition to the six self-built float builders). This link to The Rose Examiner has so many articles about the Tournament as well as float winners and better photographs.

The theme and President of the 2021 Tournament will be introduced in just about two weeks.

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In 2018, Phoenix Decorating Company moved the construction barn from Pasadena to Irwindale and that gave The Mister and I plenty of new restaurants to explore following our observing the float road tests. One restaurant we really liked was Costa's Family Restaurant in West Covina, where we enjoyed dinner after decorating floats in 2018. We hadn't been to Costa's for more than a year! It was January 2 and the lobby was still decorated for Christmas. Being a weekday, there were several 'lunch specials' on the menu. Time for comfort food to start the year, and follow the miles of walking to view the floats.
Liver and onions (calves liver; tender, thin and with a wonderful flavor). $8.29. It came with the salad or soup, dinner roll and either a beverage or dessert.
The hot turkey sandwich ($9.99) on a slice of white bread, served with vegetables, mashed potatoes and lots of gravy (along with -yes- canned cranberry sauce) was really wonderful, filling, flavorful and satisfying. The (baked here) dinner roll; wonderful. The mixed sherbet dessert was just a perfect ending to this meal and just enough to make the drive back home to East County without needing to stop for a snack.