Interspersed with the many community groups and businesses in Saturday’s West Seattle Grand Parade – four traditional motorized parade floats:

West Seattle is the only neighborhood in the city that still has its own traveling parade float, kept going year after year by the volunteers of West Seattle Hi-Yu. Earlier this summer, they put out a call for help – without it, they can’t keep going. And without Hi-Yu traveling to other parades, this one won’t get reciprocal visits from others in the region. This time, for the first time in a while, the Port Orchard Fathoms O’Fun float came from across Puget Sound:

The Marysville Strawberry Festival float has been a yearly favorite:

And the Daffodil Festival float from Pierce County, too – a wider view is in our report on the parade winners; here’s a close-up detail:

The West Seattle Grand Parade is officially sanctioned by Seafair, which means Seafair parade marshals help out, and Seafair sends its parade contingent, including the Pirates:

In our first report, we showed you the two police motorcycle drill teams that start the parade every year, including the Vancouver, B.C., officers whose appearance here is a Seattle-area exclusive. When both teams finished their shows, they stopped in The Junction to applaud each other:

We got some questions yesterday about a “motorcade” on the bridge … it wasn’t a motorcade, just the teams getting to and from the parade!

P.S. A few notes – The Chinese Community Girls’ Drill Team, usually a WSGP favorite, wasn’t here this year because the Renton River Days Parade was at the same time – this year brought some conflicts because it has five Saturdays … Next Saturday (July 30th), the region’s biggest parade of the year, the Seafair Torchlight Parade, happens downtown, and some of the participants you saw yesterday will be there – besides the Seafair contingent, also West Seattle Hi-Yu and the All-City Band. The night before Torchlight brings the Band Jam warmup, hosted by All-City, back to Southwest Athletic Complex here in West Seattle – free, 6:30 pm, all welcome, full preview to come!