Alameda California's Annual Fourth of July "Mayor's Parade"

Billed as one of the longest parades in the country with 152 registered entries, the event began at 10 a.m. on Park Street and took about three hours to make it down to Otis and back up Grand and over to Webster Street.

At the start, it was pleasantly toasty, a sultry summer's day. By the end, the asphalt was bubbling up like the La Brea Tar Pits. OK, not really. But it was warm. Thousands of happy spectators lounged along sidewalks, amiably vying for shade and slurping patriotically colored sno-cones before the warm sun melted them into purple goo. The sno-cones, that is, not the people, although they were melting a little too.

If you were not able to watch the Alameda Mayor's parade I have posted a few pictures on a Parade Photos page that you can access by clicking here.