smart kitty: My little town

My sunny little town of Petaluma held the annual Butter and Egg Days parade on Saturday. It is Petaluma's 150th birthday. Even though I have lived there for four years now, this was my first time attending it intentionally. (A few times I tried to drive somewhere and was like "Why are there tractors, and people dressed up like cows on the street? Inconvenient!)

It was a gorgeous day, and I enjoyed being outside with the townsfolk.

I didn't have my camera for the most adorable segment of the day: The Cutest Chick Contest, wherein babies dressed up like chickens to compete for the crowd's love and admiration. I loved them all. Babies!

I did, however, have my camera for the most perplexing part: the parade itself. I have always been confused by parades that aren't the Rose Parade. What is the point? The floats are not usually pretty, and it seems like it's just an opportunity to make children march in the street and look at war veterans wearing special hats. Trucks driving around in circles with people waving at you from the back?

Hence my new slogan:
Parades -- a whimsical way to waste gas!

This truck has balloons on it. Thousands of people sat on the sidewalk to look at that.

Tractors!

It wasn't too long before children started doing something adorable again, though. Joy took some pictures of it for me. There was a DJ and a bunch of kids started dancing. Who doesn't like that? Communists and losers, that's who.

That little boy in the red shoes was a dancing machine! He was doing handstands, too.

Dancing! Children!

The next day, I went to the town chili cookoff. I didn't know chili cookoffs were a real thing people did. Three of the entries were good, but the rest kind of were lazy. Come on, P-Town, put some effort into your chili!