Christmas Boat Parade

Thought I'd briefly interrupt the cross country road trip posts for a quick festive post. Last week Sara, another travel nurse, and I headed down to Balboa Island in Newport Beach for the Christmas Boat Parade. First, if you have ever watched the shows The OC or Laguna Beach, being in that area is like being in a fake wonderland. You see things like the Fashion Island mall and lo and behold, there really at rich, collagen-injected, crazy-skinny women in there shopping with a small yappy dog tucked under their arms. And look! There's the Newport Beach Yacht Club where the Cohens were when Seth burned down his dad's office building in season 3! It's a bizarre experience, to say the least.

That said, my godparents have a house on Balboa Island and are awesome enough to let me stay there whenever I'm down in Orange County. On a previous visit I'd seen signs for the Christmas Boat Parade around the island and thought it sounds like the most adorable-y festive thing ever. And when Karen, my godmother, mentioned you could bring a glass of wine with down to water to watch the boats go by, I was sold.

So Sara and I wandered around Laguna Beach for a while...

And then headed back to Balboa. After dark, we walked the half block down to the water with our wine and chips and dip. And guacamole hummus. Have you tried that stuff? It’s from Trader Joe’s and is DELICIOUS. We parked ourselves on the sea wall and waited for the boats. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but we were NOT disappointed. Probably 40-50 boats went by. There were everything from small little inflatable boats literally weighed down with lights all the way up to giant yachts with live dancers. By far our favorite was this one.

The dragon breathed actual fire. How can you compete with that!?!

This one was also particularly impressive. It’s hard to tell from the picture (sorry about that, I forgot the memory card for my nice Canon Rebel so my iphone was doing it’s best), but there seemed to be an Elvis theme including a pink Cadillac being pulled behind the boat.

I also really liked all the ones where the mast was made into a Christmas tree.

All in all, it was super festive and enjoyable. If you are ever in the area the week leading up to Christmas, I would highly recommend. Get there early to grab parking and bring plenty of wine. 

(Bridge onto Balboa Island. Yachts as far as the eye can see. Literally.)