Parade of Lights

My husband and I love boats and sailing (and one of the things that drew us to each other). So it was pretty humorous that we had consistently missed the Parade of Lights for the entirety of our relationship… but quite honestly, isn’t that the way it seems to always go? Well, this year, we put it on our calendars well in advance, and made a point to head down for the Parade of Lights.
So, first of all — if you haven’t heard of it before, the Parade of Lights is on the Potomac… as in, it’s a parade of *boats*. The parade starts off in Old Town Alexandria (down by the Torpedo Factory), and ends up on the DC Wharf on Water Street, where all the boats dock, and there is a big awesome after party.
We opted to watch from Alexandria, as we weren’t really in the mood to deal with drunken revelers (I know, so unusual for me!), and I think we were ultimately glad we did. Although the docks were crowded (seriously, get there early and stake a spot!), the view was perfect. The boats were all decked out in lights, each boat with a different theme (although there should be a drinking game… whenever a boat’s theme is «Christmas», you do a shot. You’ll be drunk 15 minutes into this thing).
So the good:
The event started right on time. The kick off was supposed to be at 5:30, and the first boat pulled into view at 5:35. Awesome.
Some of the boats are decked out incredibly creatively
It’s not your usual parade
There was a professional radio DJ (I didn’t catch which one… Tommy something?) that provided the commentary and filled up the time when the boats lagged behind
The not so good:
The DJ that was providing the commentary ran out of material about ¹⁄₃ of the way through and he started to read off tweets… which I pretty much loathe (even though I’m a huge fan of twitter)
Some of the boats really lagged, so there were periods where you would just stand there in the cold waiting for another boat to pull into view
It is COLD. It’s the beginning of December, on the water, at night. OMG. SO. COLD.
All that being said, it’s a quirky, off the wall little event, and I love the creativity that the captains put into their boats. Definitely fun and weird.