I went with Single Son. He had to work, he wanted me to take photos of the parade. Needless to say, he didn't have to twist my arm to get me there.
Lake Orion is a quaint little village located about 40 minutes north of Detroit. I *love* Lake Orion!! So homey ... where neighbor knows neighbor. And people actually stop to say hi to you when you pass them on the street. Oh, and stop by their website ... Single Son is the web host ... I know ... shameless plug. The site is still under construction, so not all pages work yet.
We had to arrive early, as Single Son was assigned to the parade staging area. Busy, busy!! With over 130 floats and organizations marching in today's Parade, it's the largest local parade outside of Detroit's Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade.
I wandered around the Village for a few hours. Talking to local business owners, residents and just about anyone who passed by. Like I said, friendly little place Lake Orion is.
Stopped to eat a late lunch at The Poppy Seed Deli and Coffee. Delish!! And of course, I lingered there to keep warm. If you're ever in the area and want some great flat bread sandwiches, delish soup and a cozy small town environment, head on over to Poppy Seed!
Man, it was cold!! Snowed the entire day, too. My toes were so cold that I stopped by one of the stores for an extra pair of socks. Extra thick and fuzzy ... ahhhhhhhh!!
At 5 PM I headed to the other side of town - a two minute walk, half of that spent waiting for the crosswalk sign to change - over to where they'd set up the stage for the Christmas Carolers. A group of talented gals ranging from early elementary to high school ... all from a local talent academy. And talented they were!! The youngsters sang my favorite Christmas song ... *I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas* ... just too cute!
The parade started at just after 6 PM. My poor camera! It was a chilly 28 degrees, and like I said earlier, it snowed the entire time. My camera's computer kept thinking the batteries were low ... and would try to shut the camera off! So between floats or other participants I'd have to cuddle the camera to keep it warm! I managed to coax the camera to cooperate for over 120 photos. Although, I admit, next year I think I'll set up a tripod ... between the cold and the motion I had a higher than normal percentage of blurry photos. Grrrrrr. Just wish there was some way I could shelter the camera from the cold. I'm not the only one who had the problem, too ... more than a few people were in the same boat!! Who'da thunk we'd need a temperature rating on our digital cams? LOL!
So ... here's my faves from the ten or so dozen photos I took ... enjoy ...
Historic Village of Lake Orion Michigan
Chief of Police
Christmas Carolers
Santa Claws
The Man of the Hour ...
I have a few more photos in a photo album ...
ENJOY!!
And, if ya'll are in the area ... stop by ... especially if it's Parade Day ... or Fireworks Day ... or whenever ... Lake Orion really knows how to host an event!!
This looks like a quaint little village, kinda like Frankenmuth. And I love the dog dressed as Santa...too cute.
ReplyDeleteOh neat! I wanna go!! Hmmm... maybe not in the freezing cold snow though.
ReplyDeleteBill, it's about the size of Frankenmuth ... maybe a little bigger. Speaking of, I'd love to see Frankenmuth at Christmas. I can just imagine how they deck the halls.
ReplyDeleteThat doggie may be in today's local paper - The Oakland Press. As I was taking pics of "Tuffy" one of the paper's photographers came up and snapped a few. Asked a ton of questions about Tuffy. I guess Tuffy is a local figure, he's been in the paper many times before for his unique costumes at different events.
Pengy ... you'd have loved it! Snow and all. A bunch of really neat stores, the coffee shop, and even the snow ... with woolen socks - and hat and mittens, even YOU could survive it. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWe have a quant little town like this in Washington where I used to live called Leavenworth. It was always decked for the holidays. The whole town was Christmassy. Very pretty all lit up at night.
ReplyDeleteKit, I love small towns!! They really do a lot for the different holidays. There's another small town near here, Rochester, that I'll be going to after the semester ends - they drape every building in town with lights. And not just trim, almost every square inch of each building front is covered. It's a sight to see. I'll probably post pictures of that, too.
ReplyDeleteLooks like it would have been fun.. even with the camera playing up!
ReplyDeleteHelen, you're right!! Even with the camera acting up it was fun!! I'm already thinking ahead to the next Lake Orion event, and how I can do it differently to get better results.
ReplyDelete