West Seattle Grand Parade tomorrow: The route & road closures

That’s our very simple Google Map showing (top) where the American Legion-presented West Seattle Grand Parade starts tomorrow at 11, (center) where the Rotary Club-presented West Seattle Kiddies’ Parade starts tomorrow at 10:30, and finally, where both end (California/Edmunds). Note that the streets (which are already posted for “no parking”) close around 9 am, according to police – and there are restrictions on a few side streets too, particularly 44th near the start and end of the route, and Lander on both sides of the route because of staging (as we showed last year, which was our first time ever walking in the parade – we’ll be doing that again tomorrow, in celebration of West Seattle volunteers, and some of the newly announced West Seattle Volunteer Recognition honorees have promised to join us) – here’s a staging photo from last year:

Also in the parade tomorrow, almost 80 entries, including three marching bands (Seattle All-City Band, led by Denny Middle School music director Marcus Pimpleton; Kennedy High School; Sumner High School), two motorcycle drill teams (Seattle PD and Vancouver, B.C., PD), more than a dozen drill teams and cheer squads, plus four good old-fashioned floats (including West Seattle Hi-Yu), and as we reported Tuesday morning, JP Patches is back! Other parade favorites on the list include Art and Gloria, “still married” (2008 photo):

If you want to get a taste of the past few years’ parades, here’s our archived coverage, newest to oldest.

Forest July 17, 2009 (12:47 pm)

Note to self: The regional belly dancing festival at Hiawatha Park will aggravate the parking shortages in the vicinity of the parade’s staging activities on Lander Street.

Jim July 17, 2009 (2:50 pm)

The city schedule is at the earliest extreme this year. as the hydro races shift with the calendar next year, that will ease things up giving an extra week in between events.

Miss Courtney July 17, 2009 (3:46 pm)

FYI Alaska st between 42nd and Ca signed to be closed as of 7am tomorrow, for anyone else like me who uses that street for parking. Cheers!

WSB July 17, 2009 (3:51 pm)

The no-parking signs kick in at 7 am but the police told me (and I spoke to the parade commander) traffic doesn’t close until 9 am. Just to be clear – TR

Carole July 17, 2009 (4:12 pm)

As someone who lives on California, I can assure you the tow trucks will be out at 7:01am. Every year we watch them tow away folks who either didn’t see or ignored the no parking signs.