The Big Parade

In Philadelphia when a sports championship is secured we celebrate by way of parade. Not just a marching band and float parade but millions of people flooding the streets to see their sports heroes. As soon as the Phillies won the Series on Wednesday the parade route, time and date was officially announced. Friday, October 31st (yup, Halloween) at noon. People would crowd the streets of Philadelphia to watch the Phillies come down Broad Street.

It was anticipated that over a million people would show up so my family got to plotting and planning. Should we drive? Should be venture through public transportation with five kids (we took the kids out of school)? My Dad came up with the best plan. He used his hotel points and secured two rooms at a center city hotel so we could be in the thick of it on Friday morning. Bry couldn't get off work so as soon as the kids got off the bus we were off to the hotel. The rooms were gorgeous. My Mom and Dad had the boys in their room and Genna and I roomed with the girls. Thursday was nice. We walked around the city for a while. Got dinner (took two hours to get cold food, long story) and hung out at the hotel. I learned that my kids do not like hotels as they screamed bloody murder at bed time. The finally slept, Abs only until 5am.

We woke up on Friday, had a nice breakfast (comped after the night befores fiasco) and set out to the parade.


The city was FULL of Phillies fans donned in red from head to toe. We inched towards the parade route and the sea of Phillies red got thicker and thicker. I with my double stroller felt like I was maneuvering a storm. We pushed our way to a decent spot at 17th and Market where we were about 10 rows of people back. We knew they would be up high so it was good enough. An hour and a half felt like 5 with five whiney kids, two of which were toddler who did not understand the idea of holding still and not screaming and two who are 6 and 7 year old boys who don't do standing still.

Finally the parade was underway and it was fantastic to see. We saw Charlie Manuel, The Phanatic, the Mayor of Phildelphia and almost the entire team (a few players were on the other side of the floats so we didn't see them). It was so neat to be so close to these people who I have been cheering on for months. The parade was short (7 buses and flatbed trucks to be exact) but amazing to behold. Not just the players but the millions of fans. They expected 1.2 million and 3 million showed up.

They thought it would be loud, but it was louder. They expected riots, vandalism and rowdiness and instead got 3 million people behaving well and getting along. As Gracie punched and hit random strangers surrounding us the laughed and played with her. It was really neat to be a part of something so huge.



So that's it. The season is done. I am sad that it is over but will forever hang on to that little piece of heaven that was being at the World Series and cheering my team, the first sports team I ever loved, to victory.

Pat Burrel Led the parade with his dog Elvis:


You know who this is:


Charlie in his spiffy suit:


Some of the players, Rudy Seanez & Cris Coste: