That’s WSB video of the West Seattle Hi-Yu float going by during tonight’s Seafair Torchlight Parade, from our vantage point across from the Rainier Club about two-thirds of the way down the parade route. The Hi-Yu folks had extra reasons for those big bright smiles — the Luna Park-themed float won the Smile Award during judging for tonight’s parade. (Full list of winners here.) We’ll add a few more West Seattle moments and parade observations later, but wanted to get this news up first (in case you missed our post to Twitter during the parade). ADDED VERY EARLY SUNDAY: Those assorted extras, including a clip of parade grand marshal Sig Hansen from “Deadliest Catch” (no West Seattle link that I know of, but having had some family ties to the fishing industry, it was interesting to see a fisherman treated like a rock star!):
OK, so there’s your celebrity sighting. Back to the other notes. West Seattle’s Most Famous Politician was NOT in the parade, for the second time in three years; though the mayor wasn’t in it, various other city and state leaders – including Governor Gregoire – were.
The parade seemed a little slimmer on out-of-town participation this year … no sign of the crazy ladies from Idaho who have food boxes on their hats and push strollers or shopping carts … no Port Townsend Rhododendron Festival or the clog float from Lynden … could it be gas prices? (Although a Stryker vehicle from Fort Lewis did roll with the military contingent, and you gotta imagine the mpg’s on that one are in the basement.)
One unexpected West Seattle sighting — Michelle Edwards broke ranks while the UW marching band was somewhat stalled in front of our spot, and came over to quickly say hi. She was in the Torchlight Parade last year too — doing the parade wave as a Seafair Princess, representing West Seattle Hi-Yu (photo toward the bottom of this post).
Tonight, Trisha Thompson wore the Hi-Yu sash in the princess procession – because of timing factors, West Seattle is represented during Seafair by the second-to-last Hi-Yu queen (so next year, it’ll be Sivona Lingle, who just last Monday crowned her successor, Margo Femiano, WSB coverage here). Here’s a quick clip of Trisha tonight (at right in the video):
Next weekend, it’s Blue Angels and hydros. (Remember you can go watch both from the shores of Lake Washington for free on Friday – the air show is considered “practice” and hydros are just doing test runs, but we always have a blast.)
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