Royals Celebration Parade.

It's ironic I am writing this post now, as the parade took place exactly (right down to the hour) a week ago today. The city has quite a different landscape today than it did a week ago.

I woke up around 6am. I didn't sleep well. I had those excited jitters you get when something thrilling is happening the next day and you are terrified of oversleeping, so you never really fall asleep. As I was getting ready, I watched the news and people had camped out the night before and now people were slowly trickling in and I was excited (and now nervous) to get down there.

Almost every school in the metro area canceled for a "Blue Snow Day." This added probably 250,000 (my guess) people to the already growing number expected to be at the parade. The parade was from 12-2, with a rally at Union Station afterwards. We left the house about 8:10am and met our friend Michael in front of Union Station, who had gotten there about an hour earlier to save us all a spot. We parked by Penn Valley Community College (about a mile away) There was traffic but we didn't experience any real problems or delays. When we got there around 8:30am, things were starting to fill up but we got to Michael easily. Our spot was fantastic; we were on a slight hill with a great view of the stage.

Lola played with Henry and Elsie most of the time during the parade. We brought Ipads, coloring books, snacks and My Little Ponies to keep them busy and entertained while we sat in the same spot for 5 hours. All 3 of the kids behaved so well-I was impressed! Honestly, I don't think Lola really knew (or cared) what was going on. She knows the Royals play baseball and she clapped along with the crowd but her favorite player is Josh Donaldson (who plays for the Blue Jays-who we beat in the ALCS.) It seemed Henry and Elsie were the same way, too. Hopefully, Lola remembers more than I think she will she did and will able to tell others about her experience later in life.

There were outhouses about 20-30 yards away from us, so around 10:30am we tried to use the bathroom before everything started. It took us 45 minutes just to walk through the crowd to get to them. I held Lola as tightly as a could but, for a split second, I lost hold of her and realized how quickly and easily it is to lose a child in a crowd that size. I heard later that over 150 children had gotten away from their families during the parade. I think most of them were teenagers between 10-14 years old but the panic that one must feel losing a child (or being a child that is lost) in a crowd that size must be crippling. By 11am, no one was going anywhere. It was shoulder to shoulder people, more people than I have ever experienced at any show, or anywhere at anytime. To look around, was to see nothing but the color Blue and people, people, people everywhere. People sitting on top of outhouses, people sitting on rocks underneath a hotel, people on roofs and ledges, people climbing streetlight pools because there was literally no where else to go. Some even abandoned their cars on the side of the highway, unable to drive any further into the city, and walked the rest of the way to the parade. There were so many people in one location, cellphone towers were overworked and cellphones stopped working. It became impossible to reach out to anyone, anywhere, whether they were at the parade or not. I usually do well in big crowds but after being there for 5 hours, I began to get anxious. The crowd was so big it was getting small, smaller and finally it felt like it was on top of me. The thought of not being able to leave if I had to was the only thing I could think about. (I start to feel the same way on planes after about 4 hours.) Once the rally started, I could focus on other things and the anxiety lifted.

 For the parade, we could only see the tops of the players heads as they rounded the corner from about 30 yards away. But what we lacked in viewing for the actual parade, we made up for in viewing of the rally. We had just about the best vantage point as you could've had that day. The managers, George Brett and different players took turns speaking to the crowd. Johnny Gomes led the rally, along with this hype-inducing rant: "Rookie of the Year-not on our team-beat em! MVP of the whole league-not on our team but we beat that guy too! We whopped their ass!" (paraphrased, of course) I'm sure it will be on Youtube for years to come.

It had been 30 years since the city had done anything like this, so no one really knew what to expect which made planning difficult. But now we know, for next year, to GET THERE EARLY. Park far away and be prepared to walk. PACK A LUNCH. Decide if you want to watch the parade or the rally and GET THERE EARLY to find a spot. Try to find a viewing area where you can see but that is still part of the crowd, so you can experience and feel the crowd's energy. Remember, your cell phone may not work, so plan ahead and go as a group. The whole, "we will meet you down there" idea isn't going to work. If you can swing it, it would be amazing to rent a hotel room by Crown Center for the night before and the night after. Try not to bring children. Lola had great behavior the entire day; she did way better than I thought she would. However, crowds that large are simply unsafe for small children.

Overall, we had a great experience. (especially after hearing some other parade goers horror stories of getting lost from their group, sitting in traffic for 2 hours, not being able to see anything, etc.) We were all tired and hungry and thirsty from lack of food and water (no one drank so we wouldn't have to use the bathroom) but every restaurant in the city was booked for hours, so we settled on eating old chicken strips from HyVee after the parade. Once the headache subsided and our bellies were full, I laid in bed and reminisced on how I had been a part of something historic to this city, something I will get to tell my grandchildren about or anyone else who's interested, because, "I was there."

Hearing 800,000 people chant, "Let's Go Royals!" gave me chills and was truly a once in a lifetime experience. To watch an entire city put an entire day on hold and celebrate together, was historic. 800,000 people and only 3 arrests. No major incidents to report. that's amazing. That's Kansas City.