Yesterday I was checking my email and I received a notice that there was an Elephant Parade in downtown Salt Lake. It was sort of a teaser to entice people to come to the circus, which opened in Salt Lake last night. So, I sat there and thought that I should try to go with the boys. Then I looked at the time. It was 9:26 am and the parade started at 12 noon. Great, I should be able to get ready and get there on time. Then I decided it would be easier and more fun if we took the Frontrunner train to get there. I checked the train schedule and found if I wanted to get there before the parade started I would need to get to the Ogden station by 10:17. I got ready as quickly as possible and threw a bunch of stuff in a bag and told the boys to get in the car. We barely made it on the train--As I was running up the ramp to buy tickets a very nice UTA worker yelled to me and asked me how many tickets I needed. I yelled back and he punched it in. I whipped out my credit card and slid it in the machine. Then the train started to whistle and we ran to the train. The conducter opened his window and told me not to worry, that he would wait for us. I was so glad because the boys were so excited to get to ride the train. I was also exhausted from our fast pace and being worried about not making it. We had a great ride and the boys were fantastic!
We hopped off Frontrunner and got on TRAX and went to the Planetarium to check it out and wait for the parade. We had a great time there and then found a place to sit and watch the parade.
Then the parade started. A man on stilts (pictured below) was walking by and I said, "Carson, look how tall he is." The guy then looked over at us and started walking really close. Pretty soon he was almost stepping on us. It scared us. (Yes, I was as nervous as Carson! I kept thinking that he should be pretty good on those stilts, but then he kept getting closer and closer!) After he almost stepped on us and walked away (with us huddled together for protection) I looked up at him and he was laughing and mocking us. Thinking back on it, it really was pretty funny!
The elephants came last. They were really neat to watch go by. The elephants in back held the tail of the elephant in front with their trunk.
As they were walking by, the elephant in front stopped. The elephants behind it stopped too. I thought, "Uh oh, something's wrong." Well, the elephants turned and faced us. They were close enough to touch us. It was awesome and kinda scary at the same time. (I mean, the elephants are surrounded by men and women with little teeny whips. These elephants weigh tons and they're going to keep them from trampling us with little sticks? Yeah, made me nervous.) After I got over the fact that it was scary, I told the boys, "We had the best seats!" The elephants only stopped about once per block.
It was a great day and I'm glad that we decided to do it!
