Susan McGuire, the vice president for public relations for the Daffodil Festival, is gushing. She just e-mailed this report.

The crowd in Orting is as large or larger then last year at 8,000 - 10,000. Not sure how they get that many people into town, but they do and they have been waiting all day for the Parade!!

This has been an amazing day for the Daffodil Festival...the Tradition seems to be alive, the crowds in every city have been awesome and the enthusiasm has been tremendous...it makes one feel good to know that all of our hard work has been appreciated.

The sidewalks are filled to capacity along Main Street today, and in a small garden nearby there was a small ceremony as the City of Roses paid respect to the Land of Daffodils.
A group of 14 Rosarians (the Portland equivalent of Daffodilians) planted an Oregon Celebration rosebush beside the Ryan House Museum.
The
Rosarians had earlier ridden through Tacoma and Puyallup to show their colors (cream and red) to the people of Pierce County.
Daffodilians, by the way, have already offered the Rosarians a selection of daffodil bulbs.
"We think your parade was wonderrful," said "Lord High Sheriff" Rosarian Carla Stenberg. "Who could have asked for a better day."
Meanwhile, as the parade leaves Sumner, Pastor Lori Bunkoski of Christ the King Lutheran Church smiles at the profits from today's bake sale.
She estimates her church choir earned $300 from sales of popcorn and baked goods at a stand on Maion Street.
The biggest seller?
Chocolate chip.

And now, on to Orting.

Living on a parade route is not everyone’s idea of paradise, but Bonnie Lambert loves it.
Lambert owns a house in Puyallup, a few blocks south of the fairgrounds, and on Saturday afternoon her street was jam-packed with clowns, marching bands, fire engines, vintage cars and daffodil bedecked floats.
“We like it,” Lambert said,watching from her front yard. “We’ve lived here 15 years, and we really look forward to this.”
A second story deck gives her family and friends a unsurpassed vantage point, she said.
Lambert also volunteers for the Puyallup Police department and makes herself useful during the parade, letting people rest unside, offering first aid and sometimes blankets.
“As long as I can get in and out of my driveway, it’s fine,” she said.

Taking part in four parades in a single day means a lot of coordination – and a lot of waiting, too.
Puyallup’s 5th St. SW was one of the feeder streets where floats and bands and cheerleaders waited their turn to merge with the main stream of the parade, heading down 7th Avenue SW and then onto Meridian.
One of the groups parked on the side was the SeaFair Pirates, with their rolling vessel, the Moby Duck.
Captain Walter “Tattoo” Taucher and his crew of 24 mean-looking pirates killed time waiting their turn by snoozing in the sun, pretending to terrorize passersby and sucking down ice cold bottled water.
Taucher looks tough, but inside the Shogun helmet and behind the long curved saber is the nicest pirate you’d ever want to meet.
“The Daffodil Parade is a really good parade, and it brings out the best in the pirates,” Taucher said.
“This is a part of Americana,” he said. “A lot of people think it’s being lost, but I think it’s getting better and better.”
“Americans are rediscovering events such as this,” Taucher said. “Sometimes it takes a bad economy to make it happen. It gets people thinking about what’s really important.”

The Tacoma leg of the parade ended at noon, and the floats - along with busloads of drill teams and bands - made their way toward Puyallup along
River Road.
As she was walking from Tacoma's Pacific Avenue up 11th Street, 82-year-old Evelyn Larsen recalled parades past. She's been attending since she was a girl.

She stood along Broadway and named the stores that once graced the street: Rhodes, Fisher's, Woolworth. Her late husband was a bellhop at the nearby Winthrop Hotel, she said.
And Saturday's parade?
"It was nice," she said.

Here's how floats and other entries fared in the judging.

Major Float Awards

Grand Sweepstakes
Best in Parade – Highest overall Point Score: # 95 Clover Park School District

President’s Award
Sweepstakes Runner-up – 2nd highest Score: # 88 Capital Lakefair - Olympia

=> Read more!

Shriners in tassled and sequined fezes pass by, clowns ride bikes, a calliope plays and pirates offer their friendly menace.
A tractor carries a cargo of a duck, chicken and pig.
Julie Marsh of Puyallup sits on the sidewalk near 11th Street with her 1-year-old daughter Olivia.
"She loves it," Marsh says.
Sitting nearby, Sarah Keller of Gig Harbor watches the parade with her 2-year-old, A
bby.
"We're having a great time," Keller says. "Abby thinks it's a little loud. This is her first parade. I'm impressed with the amount of people here, and you couldn't ask for a better day."

Parade marshal Wayne Severson - one of several marshals with the Seafair Festival in Seattle - estimates the crowd along Pacific Avenue in Tacoma at 8,000.
"It's a great turnout," he said. "This is the largest turnout in a number of years."
Severson said he marshals parades from March to December, maybe 22 each year. The Puyallup Valley Daffodil Festival Grand Floral Parade is his second in 2009.
"Look how cheerful everyone is," he said, smiling and cheerful himself.

Only nine minutes behind schedule, the 76th Annual Grand Floral Parade has begun under sunny, if chilly skies.
As he prepared to take his place in the line of floats, bands, princesses and other dignitaries, Puyallup Valley Daffodil President Brad Stevens said he was up at 4:30 this morning - and his first thought concerned the weather.
"I hoped it was going to be like they said it was. It was," he said.
Stevens' wife, Sherry, stood near him, and near the float that would carry the 22 princesses and one queen selected to represent the festival today and throughout the remaining year.
Sherry herself was a princess - representing Tacoma's Lincoln HIgh School - in 1978,
This year's queen, Melanie Stambaugh, 18 from Emerald Ridge High School, adjusted her white silk dress.
"I'm so excited," she said. "Today's been great. I've been meeting royalty from other cities. The sun is out, and I'm with the whole court. You can't have a dull time."
In a queen's handbasket she carries the parade necessities: Kleenex, lip gloss, festival buttons.
Stambaugh has marched in the previous six parades as a drummer in marching hbands, first from Ferrucci Junior High and then Emerald Ridge. This time she's riding high atop a flower-strewn float.
Sherry Stevens warns that she should look out for sunburn.

Groups of volunteers are spending all day today putting the final touches on the floats that will appear in tomorrow's Daffodil Parade.

I went down to the Foss Waterway Seaport's Maritime Museum this afternoon to check out their progress. About four different floats were underway there about 1:30 p.m.

Below are some volunteers working on the City of Sumner's float.

Other groups of float-builders are setting up shop at the Active Construction, Inc., warehouse on River Road in Puyallup. Still more have their own storage areas.

In total, about 40 floats will appear in tomorrow's parade, along with about 80 other marching groups and dignitaries.

The parade starts at 10:15 in Tacoma, 12:45 in Puyallup, 2:30 in Sumner, and 5 p.m. in Orting.