6-1-08 Grand Old Days Parade

Finally, a nice day Sunday! Greetings from Aquatennial world. We just wrapped up the Grand Old Days parade in St. Paul and here's the rundown.

From L-R
Jenna, Lindsey, Tzvet, Mary, Rob, Charissa

Grand Old Days takes place in St. Paul on, believe it or not, Grand Avenue. What a concept? Anyway, Grand Old Day is always on the first Sunday in June and features street vendors with food, TONS of live music and plenty of pub crawls. They have a parade to kick off the festivities and Aquatennial brought the float.

Captains Lindsey and Rob

This has to be one of the longer parades we do all year....I heard it was about three miles long and it felt like it. Have you ever gotten sore from waving? Me either until Sunday. Tons of people showed up and that was great to see. It was a perfect day....80 and sunny.


Our Aquatennial float has just been updated thanks to the Senior Ambassador group. Some new lettering, couple of new features and, for the first time, music! Our Commodore, Mary Niemeyer has had our FM Radio station in town, JACK FM (104.1 FM if you're scoring at home) donate some equipment to provide music and put together a mix. A couple of our station engineers and I went out to the float last week and hooked it up. Sounds great! Stuck the playlist on my iPod and we were off and running with a great mix of summer songs.

After the parade, last year's Aquatennial Captain, Matt McDonough, had us over for food and refreshments. Matt owns Grand Spectacle, an eyeglass store on Grand Avenue. He was a terrific host and it was a perfect place to spend the afternoon taking in the festivities. Thanks Matt!

Our Princesses, Tzvet and Jenna, had never been to Grand Old Days before so Rob, his wife Amy and I showed them around for a bit. After a trip to the Grand Creamery (how on earth can you go to Grand Old Days and NOT get a waffle cone? Answer that!), we decided to head out. I think we were all a little over-sunned and that point.

We Finally Get to Dress Down! From L-R
Captain Rob, Senior Vice Commodore Patrick Bohmer, Princess Jenna, Princess Tzvet, Captain Lindsey

Tzvet, Rob, Jenna, Lindsey and Amy

A good day all around....showing off our recently updated float and a beautiful day on Grand Avenue! Next up is a busy Thursday (June 5th). First, a big schedule announcement coming Thursday at 11:30 AM in Peavey Plaza (11th and Nicollet, downtown Minneapolis). Mayor R.T. Rybak will be there along with other dignitaries and Commodore Mary, Captain Rob and myself. Should be fun. Then Thursday night, we'll be at the Spring Lake Park Tower Days parade.

See you there!

Lindsey Peterson
2008 Captain
Minneapolis Aquatennial