Unexpected treat and sweets :)

While I've been bothering my head on what to blog next, I suddenly came face to face with an event which I just had to blog about. Coincidence? Or does God love my blogging? Hehehehe :)).

On Monday, Sri and me went to Lexington downtown just for a drive and some shopping. At a particular place, there were police cars everywhere and some roads were closed. Traffic was being diverted. There were also some fire engines seen and we started wondering whether there was a major accident or a huge fire. All sorts of bad thoughts were floating around in our minds. Since one of the shops we wanted to visit was supposedly in one of these closed roads (we didn't know the correct location), Sri parked the car and we decided to take a stroll. I admit we were also very curious to know just what was going on.

Imagine our delight, when we discovered that it was a parade. It was a fire fighters parade especially organized for children so that they learn about fire safety (The children might have been fire-fighters' kids, but I'm not sure). Much much later we came to know that its name was Lexington's annual Fire prevention parade :).





The parade hadn't yet started. People were organizing stuff yet. There were clowns riding on golf carts shaped like jeeps, fire engines everywhere with kids on top, a marching band playing a nice beat and so many people watching the whole thing. There were banners saying "Blow out before you go out" everywhere :). There were also something called stations which were vehicles dressed up as something else for the parade. Like there was this Fire engine whch wasn't real, it was cardboard all painted and fixed like a fire engine :). Then there were 3 ladies dressed as 3 piggies with a brick and hay house on a vehicle which said "Huff puff blow out before you go out" :-D. Another was a mobile fire safe house which had stuff organized in such a way to minimize chances of fire. There was also one station dressed like a jungle and little kids in fancy dresses, dressed like a giraffe, penguin etc. Yet another was a vehicle which fully looked like a birthday cake ;-). And another like a boxing ring which was named "Million Dollar baby" where a thin lady was fighting a plump man :). We walked along the road watching the hustle bustle. It was really nice to see kids enjoying so much.

The parade started at about 7:30 PM. By that time, we had already walked all the way and seen all the vehicles. Yet we sat on some steps and decided to watch the parade go by. So off they all went. Real fire engines and dressed up stations, march bands, all marched. Ronald from Mcdonalds rode a tiny Mcdonalds car and waved to the audience. There were fire-fighters with fairy wings attached to the back, people having various Popeye and Olive artificial heads attached, small vehicles shaped like a shoe, car etc. Kids waved from the tops of fire-engines and threw chocolates at everyone. There were also people giving away free mementos like a cup holder and like this small house a nice elderly lady gave me.




We waved at the kids, ran after and collected chocolates and bubble gum the kids threw at us, chewed the bubble gums and blew bubbles like kids :-D. More important was the fact that we laughed all the way and thoroughly enjoyed the experience :). I so much wished that I had our camera with us, so that I could have snapped away at all I wanted. But heck, we weren't prepared for an unexpected event :). The photo above of the kids is also from a different parade since I couldn't find any of this one on the net either :(. Anyways the photos of the parade are embedded on my mind and thats what counts :).

This unexpected treat was too cool :). It reminded me of something Sri always proclaims "Always expect the unexpected" :). By the way, we never actually found the shop we went looking for. We just didn't care anymore :-D.