Pasadena Gets Ready to Bask in the Winter Sun

Like a old and wily performer, Pasadena will flaunt its warm weather for a frigid national audience watching the Rose Parade this week.

Yes, it’s December, and, yes, that man is wearing a tank top. This is sunny Southern California, but on Monday its well-worn routine seemed downright arrogant.

The mountains towered in the clean air and temperatures grazed the low 80s as crowds started their end-of-year convergence on Pasadena, jamming streets and lining up to see the final touches being put on parade floats.

“It’s amazing to see Pasadena so crowded,” said Elizabeth Martinez, whose 17-month-old son marveled at the floats.

Parade lovers can visit the floats at various sites around town for a $3 charge. The city this week is hosting such pre-parade activities as carnival rides, equestrian shows and concerts.

Kathleen Meadows, who is visiting from Northern California, brought her young son and daughter to the Rose Bowl on Monday. As they watched Peruvian Paso horses, which are said to have the smoothest gait in the world, they could not help but notice a rider drenched in sweat.

“I wish I brought cooler clothes,” Meadows said. “But I’m happy with this weather, because I’m from Sunnyvale and it’s 48 degrees up there.”

Of course, the true Rose Parade float aficionados would ask for the sun to be a bit more discreet--or the flowers might wilt. The ideal temperature, they say, would be in the mid-60s.

Susie Garcia, designer for the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance float, said she battles the cold at night and the heat during the day--both extremes are harmful to flowers.

“Tonight it will be 45 degrees,” she said. “Today it will be 75 and on top of the float it will be 85 degrees.”

Weather forecasters say that a high-pressure area will keep Southern California sunny and breezy through New Year’s Day, though the temperature might drop to the low 70s for the parade.

Preston Chiaro, senior vice president of U.S. Borax, does not have to worry about his floats perishing in the sun. The three massive oak wagons are 115 years old and spent their glory days hauling Borax from the floor of Death Valley over the Panamint Mountains to Mohave in 130-degree heat.

The Tournament of Roses president will ride atop one of the wagons, which will not be adorned with flowers until the last minute. The mules, he said, might get hungry and eat them.

While the rest of the float decorators were busy pasting seeds and snipping flowers, Chiaro sipped a soda early Monday. Although he is expected to be on horseback throughout the parade, he said he was not worried about having just learned to ride.

“These wagons come by draft horses,” he said. “They just plod along.”

Meanwhile, the Holiday Hotline headquarters in the Pasadena Convention and Visitors Bureau was in a typical holiday frenzy, with volunteers glancing at cheat sheets to answer as many as 800 Rose Parade / Rose Bowl questions a day:

“Can we set up our couch on the sidewalk to watch the parade?”

No upholstered chairs, couches, boxes, scaffolds or ladders.

“Can we barbecue along the route?”

Yes.

“Where can I park my RV?”

In any legally designated parking space.

Of course, there was nothing as dramatic as last year’s favorite hotline question: “Could I land a helicopter on the 50-yard line during halftime so I can propose to my girlfriend?”

No.