It’s a win! The streets of Downtown Los Angeles were filled with fans wearing blue and white as they headed to watch the parade celebrating the LA Dodgers winning the World Series. Streets were closed off, and with the parade starting at 11am, fans were arriving hours before the start to get a good spot.
My friend convinced me to go check it out. “The parade is only 45 minutes,” he said – but this doesn’t take into account the time it would take to get to a good viewing spot. By the time we got close to 5th/Figueroa at 10:30am, there were already tons of fans. Walkways were blocked off, and everyone headed towards the same spot by the LA Public Library. A truck was parked in the middle of the street (probably to prevent cars from passing), and people were climbing that truck to get a better view. There was no way I would be able to see anything from the ground behind all these people!
We needed to be on higher ground. We walked back to 5th/Figueroa and tried entering through the Westin Bonaventure, but only guests staying there were allowed. We continued walking, then headed up 4th Street to get to the pedestrian bridge between YMCA and Westin Bonaventure. We were able to see since we were higher up, but it was a bit far away.
We saw an opportunity inside the parking structure. It was a bit closer, and nobody was at that spot. We found the elevator to get there, then went to the best corner on that level. We were out of the sun and away from the crowds. This was a good spot and it was only 10:52am.
Since we were at the end of the parade route, we watched more and more people arrive as we waited and waited. More people joined us at our spot too. We saw people climbing on roofs and construction equipment and a lot of fans getting turned away trying to get into the blocked off areas too. At 11:47am, we finally got a glimpse of the first double-decker appearing from behind the building. The crowds got louder as the buses passed by. We were so far that we couldn’t quite see who was on which bus – I was standing much closer to Pope Francis at World Youth Day than the Dodgers team! By 11:53am, the last bus was out of sight.
Leaving the area was another adventure. Fans were everywhere. People walked in the middle of streets that weren’t closed off, and cars had no choice but to wait. It would have been a nightmare driving at this time.
It was definitely an interesting (and a bit crazy) experience going to the Dodgers World Series Championship Parade. I am glad we were able to find a much less crowded area to watch it, but next time I’ll be sure to bring some binoculars!