06 July, 2010

Rockaway Beach Fourth of July


These aren't totally random parade watchers. They own the house next to my brother's and were having a four generational reunion at the beach.
The Rockaway beach parade was exactly how the Canbyland parade used to be a few years back. In Canby, you can walk beside your 'float' and place a candy in a kid's hand. No throwing of the candy anymore. Friends who were in this year's Canby parade said there is about four pages of "No Throwing Candy from Your Floats!!!" now.
Here in Rockaway - they close Highway 101 for an hour while the parade goes through. People were setting up their chairs at 6am when my Mom & I went for a walk to get the Sunday paper at the market.


My sister-in-law says that most of the people in the parade aren't from Rockaway Beach.
So - you get the tractors, the really snazzy convertibles, the car with the rumble seat, the bikes with training wheels, drill teams, Tillamook Cheese Princesses, & etc. Floats on the beach tend to start with towing the boat and filling it with kids.
Now - in Canbyland, the parade has gotten pretty litigated with no throwing of candy, no running of kids. Although the horses have been allowed back since the incident in 1994, what has taken the  place of small town fun is all the political peoples handing out political flyers.
Not so in Rockaway Beach. Evidently, the political peoples haven't found Rockaway Beach yet. 

Flamingo Jim's in the background. The totally ideal, satisfying, beach store of everything you really want to haul home.

But wait - it's not over yet.
At 1pm, we have the Weiner Dog Races in the city park.


 Watch a video of Rosemary getting SECOND PLACE! Yeah Livy.



Getting Lexi ready. Requires a Starter and a Catcher.
Lexi placed second last year but had a wild hair this year and ran off course to create her own course. Her grandmother, Pug (Spottia) won a race this year but at the semi-final decided to run a more psychological race keeping the other dogs running in circles and going back the way they came.

Spottia did win the dress-up challenge. As a sweet old grandmotherly type with her spectacles and cape.

I wish I had more space on my camera card for the final part of the dog races: Cool tricks.
This was open to any dog.
The best was an old brown lab who slowly lumbered himself out to center field with his partner.
The handler put her hands together like holding a gun, pointed it at the dog and said, "Bang, Bang".

The brown lab slowly laid down, rolled over to his side, then onto his back with his feet up in the air, and ever so much slower, over to his other side and got up. He must be about Rocket's age - around 10. The whole playing dead deal.
This was a show stopper. NO other dog out there could come close in a cooler trick.

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