(The view from inside the West Seattle Hi-Yu float during the Saturday move)
Around 9 am, someone texted us wondering about backups on Admiral and Avalon, trying to get to the bridge. We checked – no crashes, no stalls, and by the time we headed out for a firsthand look, all looked normal.

(Added: Photo courtesy Joy, as floats including Hi-Yu passed through downtown)
The mystery was solved, indirectly, shortly thereafter, when we saw local broadcaster Brian Westbrook‘s tweet about floats for tonight’s Seafair Torchlight Parade arriving downtown. That jolted our memory about a comment in discussion of last Wednesday’s daily traffic report: “Ex-Westwood Resident” mentioned that floats were stored at Terminal 5 this year and would be moving out Saturday morning, headed for the pre-parade Fan Fest at Seattle Center (noon-6 pm) and then, tonight, the parade. We failed to calendarize it for a later heads-up, or else we would have published an advisory (and photographed the floats! if you got a photo of them heading out, we’d love to see it – editor@westseattleblog.com). Meantime, as mentioned in our daily preview, the parade is tonight – lots of downtown road closures – followed by the Seafair Pirate Run, which will close the northbound Viaduct approximately 5:30-7:45 pm.

ADDED 5:04 PM: Thanks to Joy for sharing photos as the floats continued their journey northbound on 4th Avenue downtown after leaving West Seattle. The parade starts at 7:30 pm.

ADDED SUNDAY: Thanks to Thomas for sharing the view of the Saturday morning “parade” under the bridge from inside the Hi-Yu float!