One thing Pensacola knows a lot about is parades. We joke that if it is a holiday here, there is a parade to celebrate it.

There are Mardi Gras parades, Easter parades, Christmas parades, and as was the case this week, Festival of Five Flags parades. Fortunate for us the parades are just a few blocks from our house so we have been to many a parade.

The parades hardly differ from each other. The majority of the floats are sponsored by local krewes throwing beads.

What the locals do with the bags full of beads they collect I will never know. But the excitment of catching them is contagious. EJ and DaddyO got in on the fun and collected a neck full.


The highlight of this parade was the country station throwing beach balls. DaddyO caught one for EJ and made her night.


We will miss the parades when we move but we will always have the tin full of beads to remember them by...