By Staff
The culmination of this year's Blossomtime Festival will be Saturday with the annual parade.
The weather is supposed to be beautiful for the Grand Floral Parade, which winds its way through Benton Harbor and St. Joseph.
Blossomtime is celebrating its 101st year in 2007.
And, for the 44th time, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Motorcycle Drill Team will lead the parade.
We can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than taking in this event.
The parade is scheduled to step off at noon. Prior to the parade, area runners and walkers can take part in the annual Run for the Buds.
The race will begin at 10:30 a.m.
The Grand Floral Parade has grown over the years and now lasts nearly two hours and has more than 125 units.
Among those units will the floats, bands, clowns, antique cars and antique tractors.
The parade draws nearly a quarter of a million spectators each year and can be seen live on WNDU (Channel 16). But we suggest seeing the event in person.
The scope of your television set cannot possibly capture all the flavor of the parade.
You can only get a small glimpse of the many things that go into the parade.
You may want to leave early so you can get a good seat. Veteran viewers of the parade already have their spots picked out.
The area queens have been busy already this spring.
They took a trip to Chicago for the Shrine Hospital tour back on April 10 and then traveled to Lansing to tour the State Capitol and the Michigan State Police Training Academy on April 19.
Last Sunday, the queens blessed the blossoms and took in a vintage baseball game. The queens will take on the House of David team on Wednesday.
This week has been extra busy as Blossomtime's Good Will Tour took place.
The Keys to the Cities Mayor's Banquet was held on Tuesday and the Blossomtime Fashion Show on Wednesday. Thursday evening was the Blossomtime Youth Festival. With all that behind them, the queens are now ready to ride down the streets of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph on Saturday in the Grand Floral Parade.
Since Mother Nature appears ready to cooperate with parade goers, there is no excuse for not getting there early and enjoying a full day of family fun.