Kla-Ha-Ya Days Parade

Today we attended the Kla-Ha-Ya Days Parade. "Kla-Ha-Ya" is the word for "welcome" in the language of the Snohomish. What we found was a small town celebration in classic American style. Tractors, trucks, and lots of children. Here are a few of the shots I took to give you a bit of the flavor of the event.

I should also point out that the young people on the tractor above are wearing long sleeve flannel shirts on a day in which most of the country is suffering 100+ F temperatures. Today was the first clear blue sky we've had in a couple weeks and the high was in the mid to upper 70's. Clearly, we are in the right place.



Before he parade, these two boys were having some sort of staring contest. Wasn't clear who won.

This fellow is presumably on his way to get in formation for his role in the parade.

The parade was led, as is usually the case, by two motorcycle policemen.

After the policemen came the boy scouts carrying the flags.

The musical high point was the Snohomish High School Band. They were decked out in full summer wear of matching shorts and tee-shirts.

There were various beauty queens of a wide spectrum of ages.

Some os the beauty queens were quite young.

There was another band that played for us called the Sauerkraut Band. There was occasionally a vaguely german sounding piece, but mostly it seems to be a group, dominated by too many drummers, that just wants to have fun.

The leader of the band was decked out in a colorful hat.

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Children were everywhere... marching, dancing, carrying banners, and enjoying every minute of it. This young woman is strutting her stuff and having a good time.

this fellow seems to be pretty darned happy in his truck. A warm (not hot!) day, a truck ride and the excitement of an audience on a ride through town. I think this image pretty well sums up the spirit of Kla-Ha-Ya.