Procession of the Species 2017

The annual Procession of the Species was on Saturday April 29th celebrating Earth Day The weather forecast said cloudy, but it started sprinkling before the parade started. By the end of the parade it was pouring rain! Did that dampen anyone spirits? Heck no. So energetic and cheerful. Great costumes, floats and music. Mardi Gras for the northwest!

I go to this parade almost every year. I never noticed the throngs of spectators packing the sidewalks before. It seemed like millions of people and the parade route wound in and out of the downtown streets for miles with people hanging out of buildings to watch. Perhaps I've never noticed because I find a spot and hold it for the duration without really looking at anything but the parade.

My friend suggested we take our protest signs so I got online and found out words and symbols are restricted, forbidden even, as part of the tradition. The organizers are determined to keep the procession a celebration of life rather than allow for political statements or messages. The community is uber-liberal (Clinton won here) so it could get easily bogged down in politics. This could be why a climate change protest wasn't planned in town on the same day to avoid conflict. We did the protest and high-tailed it to the procession. It was a very busy day.

There were quite a few new costume ideas this year:

Skunk Cabbage! LOL!

OlySamba perfomance group were tigers this year.

So Adorable.

These mermaids were giggling non-stop.

Kelp.  It takes a lot of ingenuity to create
kelp costumes. LOL!

Great horns. 

Sunflowers

Poppies.

Love the duck.

Slime Time jazz band. Dressed like snails.
The best music ever and great performers.

I loved these rats. I wish I would have taken a photo of their tails.
Long, pink dragging tails. Pretty funny.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!