Queen’s Court

Marysville’s Strawberry Festival is the first parade in the annual Seafair season.  I think you have to live in Washington State awhile before you can understand or appreciate a wacky tradition of watching evening parades in the chilly rain.  This year’s theme was “Just Imagine.”

Moby Duck

Seafair is a celebration of pirates. Yes, there is alcohol involved.

Fired Up for Hyack

It’s not the Rose Parade. . .not even close!  This float is a plug for New Westminster, BC, Canada’s Hyack Festival.

Cashmere, WA

Cashmere, WA sent a bevy of beauties to invite folks to visit.  It is a tiny town in the Cascade Mountains.

Daffodil Festival Queen

Puyallup, WA sent their Daffodil Festival Queen.  You’ve got to be a local to know how to pronounce Puyallup.

Emerald Queen

The Emerald Queen float is plugging a casino rather than another parade. We have a lot of casinos here.

Prosser

Prosser, WA, which is in wine country, sent a float of fairies.

Swing with Lakefair

These friendly folks were in Marysville to promote Lakefair, the festival in Thurston County which is home to our state capitol in Olympia.

I Cheer

The I Cheer kids were my favorites.  I found them practicing with enthusiasm and gusto before the start of the parade.  Too cute.

These motorcyclists put on quite a show which I didn’t get to see because we were at the tail end of the parade. I found an extensive gallery of parade photos on the Marysville Globe site.

I have no idea who these kids are, but I was fascinated by their spinning.

Millie Judge’s team

I was out in the rain waiting for the parade to start and taking these photos because I support Millie Judge, an amazingly brilliant attorney and steadfast champion of domestic violence survivors. She is running for superior court judge in Snohomish County, and I just love that she’ll be Judge Judge after the election.

We had our own pirate. Isn’t he adorable?

Mary McNaughton, who is running for state representative, and her supporters joined us on our float which was a hayride.   Ms. McNaughton is a nurse, Army veteran, and sexual assault survivor.

Mary McNaughton’s team

I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. McNaughton at a judicial candidate evaluation session and having an in-depth conversation with her during the parade.  I will be supporting her too.