Philadelphia Gay Pride Parade

Before I get to the pictures of rainbow poodles and drag queens who have way better hair and makeup than I, quick re-cap of my tennis weekend, for anyone who is actually interested. I lost both my matches, but one I feel disappointed about my performance and one I don't. Friday night, I lost 5-7, 0-6. That one, I feel bad about; the first set was a mental battle for me, and I had been up 5-3 at one point, before collapsing. The second set was all about me mentally giving up. The woman I played was definitely better than me (she went on to play in the final match), but I should have been able to at least get a game or two from her in that second set. Ah well.  learning experience. The second match was Saturday, and I lost that one 6-4, 3-6, 0-1 (8-10 tiebreak). I don't feel bad about that one at all. The other player was a bit better than me, but we were still pretty evenly matched. I fought. And it was about 100, no shade, at 10:30-12:30 in the middle of the day. So that was my first tournament. I have my eye on one in October, one in which Benjamin and I can play mixed doubles together.

Back to Philadelphia.  The Sunday when I was doing all my sightseeing also happened to be the day of the Philadelphia Gay Pride Parade. I didn't realize this until I was eating my cheese steak on a sidewalk table and groups of people began to claim other tables and line up on the sidewalk across the street. There was an excellent Lady Gaga - tried to get a picture, but I didn't have the right lens with me. I watched from my table for a while, but there were gaps between all the groups and floats - the city hadn't completely shut down the cross streets, so the floats would have to wait for cars to pass, and the groups all stopped farther up the route to vamp for the judges (or whatever you call that when they hang out in front of the judges table). I left and walked around for a while, then wound my way up to the head of the parade and grabbed a few more shots of floats.

This marching band was pretty good, although I can't remember what they were playing. I mostly liked the twirlers though.

Someone dyed their poodle herd in rainbow colors. The little pink one looks pretty happy - show-off! Personally, I can't imagine trying to dye a poodle - I have enough trouble getting Miikka bathed without adding a hair treatment!

I have no idea what this float was for - a nightclub maybe? I got a picture of another one that was definitely advertising a night club, but it was perhaps a bit much for my poor little blog. 

I think this one was in honor of gay and lesbian members of the military, but I could be wrong. The two ladies on the left look way better in those nurse outfits than I ever would, that's for sure. The one in with the red bandana looks an awful lot like Corporal Klinger from here...

And even the Park Service got involved - the judges' area was in the plaza area right outside. I probably missed quite a few good floats by wandering off, but I am glad I got to see some of it, at least.