Armed Forces Day Parade

It was a big day here in Bremerton. As many of you know, Kitsap county has a huge military population, being home to a naval shipyard, a trident submarine maintenance facility, and a naval underwater weapons center (obviously, my husband is sitting here with me, feeding me this information. :p And he says I should not fail to mention all of the other military installations found throughout the Puget Sound. :)). So it should come as little surprise that it is also home to the oldest, and purportedly largest, Armed Forces Day parade in the nation. Armed Forces Day is celebrated every third Saturday in May, to honor those in all branches of the military. Apparently, it's a bigger deal than I realized; we saw the likes of local TV personalities, Congressman Norm Dicks, and even Adm. Gary Roughead, the Navy's top officer, flew in from D.C. to be part of the festivities. (You learn something new every day...as his vehicle--with security detail--went by, I asked Daniel, "Who's that guy?" He could only look at me in disappointment and shake his head. :p)

It's been a while since I'd been to this parade, so when Uncle Josh--known around B-Town as "The Man"-- told us he was helping build a float for it this year, we just knew we had to brave the crowds and go cheer him on. Here are a few pictures from the chaos--I mean, the fun:

Local Royalty

Military Vehicles (Seabees, Uncle Terry!):

Various car clubs

And some pretty cool floats:

Of course, our favorite happened to be PSNS's Apprentice float:

Heyyyyy....wait a minute! I recognize some of those kids!

Yep, the girls also got to be in the parade this year! Like I said, Uncle Josh is "The Man." Here they are with the float, post-parade:

Needless to say, they had a blast. In fact, Malia wants to go back tomorrow and do it again. :) She'll be kind of lonely! :)