Chinese New year parade in Chinatown! We had lots of fun. 'Drew absolutely loathes loud noises, abrupt or constant. So he was pretty frustrated with all the firecrackers, for the first hour. Once he settled in a bit, someone layed down a 15' rope of firecrackers. Muchly awesomenesses ensued.

We say a guy standing on a catwalk, with a fishing pole. He kept attaching lucky money pouches magnetically to the long red rope. Kids would be jumping up and down furiously to get their two cents worth. It was very cute.

The parade seemed a touch lackluster. The first couple of groups seemed like they didn't understand they were in a parade. They just kind of ambled down the street without purpose. But the motorcycle cops, they were all about showing off. :-P

We got some beef and chicken kabobs and made messes of ourselves. I packed us backpacks with sweaters and all the little things I bring in case of apocalypse. What did I forget, as absurd as it sounds? Wetnaps. Duh. We got lucky, and they had those footpump sink stations out. Un-sauced and shiny, we shimmied back thru the huddled masses yearning to be rude, and made it to a shopping area we had checked out earlier. 'Drew got his 5-in-1 transformer toy, and we caught the train back to Heritage Square, where we left the car.

We're definitely going back, on a non-holiday weekend. Dim Sum and more shopping must take place!