The parade wasn't scheduled to start until 6:00pm, but streets are shut down and parking gets tight, so I arrived around 1:15pm to secure a parking spot in an adjacent parking structure, and met up with Gordon Tarpley (C-3PO) and William Miyamoto, who was driving his Bumblebee car in the parade this year, rather than his Chopper droid. We were joined by Darren Moser a little while later.
Along the way, I spotted a reminder that a movie is coming out soon.
We grabbed some food, did some wandering, and as the clock struck 5:00pm, I unloaded R2 and Gordon got suited up as C-3PO. Then we headed down to the red carpet, where the droids stay on the sidelines, awaiting the other Star Wars clubs that have lined up a couple blocks away. The droids only do the red carpet portion of the parade, not the entire 3+ miles.
Finally, the parade kicked off about an hour late. Near the front are the Star Cars, including William and his Bumblebee.
The Star Wars clubs were 19th in line, so it took a little while before they got to the red carpet. Our cue was to jump in with Chewbacca, so I was only able to take a few pictures before it was our time to go.
I wasn't able to get any pictures or video while we were driving the route, although there is this photo from Getty Images.
Once we got to Hollywood and Highland, we broke off from the rest of the clubs, since our part in the parade was done. There were a lot of very happy spectators (and one Ewok) that wanted pictures with the droids.
Since the streets were still shut down as the parade kept going, William, Gordon and I went to a nearby In-n-Out to hang out for a while. Once the streets had (mostly) opened up, I got on the road to go home, only to have to wait for the very last float in the parade, a blurry Santa!
Another parade is in the books. Hopefully the droids will look good on the telecast, I'll find out in a couple weeks. Always fun to be a part of this one.
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