{"id":233843,"date":"2016-12-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-12-09T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/parade-of-lights-expands-and-delights\/"},"modified":"2016-12-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-12-09T08:00:00","slug":"parade-of-lights-expands-and-delights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/parade-of-lights-expands-and-delights\/","title":{"rendered":"Parade of Lights expands and delights"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s theme will tip a hat to San Diego Zoo\u2019s birthday<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Gina McGalliard<\/p>\n

Although we may not get a snowy \u201cwhite Christmas\u201d here in sunny San Diego, we do have our own coastal-themed holiday tradition: the San Diego Bay Parade of Lights, a procession of more than 80 decorated boats.<\/p>\n

The parade, now in its 45th year and primarily sponsored by the Port of San Diego\u2019s Tidelands Activation Program, will have the theme, \u201cIt Began with a Roar \u2014 San Diego Zoo Celebrates 100 Years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought it was very important to incorporate the 100th anniversary of the Zoo since it\u2019s such an iconic location in San Diego and has had such an impact on San Diego,\u201d said Katie Schaa, public relations representative for the parade.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody on our committee are animal lovers, especially me,\u201d added Joni Geis, who is in charge of sponsorships and donations and has worked with the parade for 15 years.<\/p>\n

\"\u201cBest<\/a>
\u201cBest of Power, 32-feet and under\u201d (Photo by Marv Sloben)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a challenge for the boaters, and we really respect and appreciate everything that they do to go through this,\u201d Geis said. \u201cThey do it two nights a year; they create their boat to come up with something \u2014 some of them are so artistic. Some of them are so creative.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boaters I can tell you are very excited about [the theme],\u201d said parade chairman, Larry Baumann. \u201cI\u2019ve seen glimpses of some of the ideas people have and I suspect that there\u2019s going to be a lot of giraffes, because sailboat masts lend themselves to being a giraffe neck.\u201d<\/p>\n

The parade route will also be longer this year, commencing as usual in Shelter Island before sailing past Harbor Island, the Embarcadero and Seaport Village, then traveling past the newly refurbished pier at Cesar Chavez Park in Barrio Logan before circling back and ending at the Ferry Landing in Coronado.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the first time, we\u2019ve decided to go further down and then bring the parade around so that it crosses the bay and heads to Coronado,\u201d Geis said. \u201cSo we\u2019re trying to bring that community in and make them feel more a part of the parade, because they\u2019ve got a great park down there, Chicano Park. The area is a very artistic area \u2014 it\u2019s just such a neat place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any boat owner \u2014 whether that is of a small motorboat, yacht, or sailboat \u2014 can participate in the parade for a $50 entry fee. About 90 percent of participants are recreational boat owners, Geis said.<\/p>\n

The event typically draws approximately 100,000 spectators, who will have the opportunity to learn more about the participating boats if they watch the parade near one of the two announcer\u2019s areas: the Coronado Ferry Landing and the Maritime Museum on the Embarcadero.<\/p>\n

Organizers said the parade has the added bonus of being a boon to waterfront businesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two Sunday nights this year, the 11th and the 18th, would be very soft nights for businesses on the bay if it weren\u2019t for the parade,\u201d Baumann said, adding that it was the boating community\u2019s gift to San Diego.<\/p>\n

Parade judges, not necessarily boaters themselves, will consist of a diverse cross-section of the local community, with representatives from the San Diego Police Department, San Diego Zoo Global, United Airlines and the military.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to keep the judging very diverse, so that there\u2019s lots of people from different backgrounds,\u201d Schaa said.<\/p>\n

On Jan. 10, an awards banquet will be held at Tom Ham\u2019s Lighthouse, one of two restaurants on the bay owned by Baumann. Two dinner tickets to the banquet are included with the parade entry fee.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s raffle-determined grand prize is a Star Clippers cruise for two, and Schaa described their vessels as \u201cgorgeous, gigantic, old-school sailboats.\u201d Participants must be in both nights of the parade to qualify for awards.<\/p>\n

The Best in Theme prize, decided by judges, will be a seven-night UnCruise Adventures vacation, to either Costa Rica and Panama, or Mexico\u2019s Sea of Cortez. Geis also noted that Star Clippers has been a sponsor for five years.<\/p>\n

Other prizes are also up for grabs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to get enough prizes that everybody walks away with something,\u201d Geis said. \u201cThe awards dinner has become so popular, we now have about 300 people that attend. So it\u2019s a really wonderful evening.\u201d<\/p>\n

The San Diego Bay Parade of Lights will be held on two consecutive Sunday nights, Dec. 11 and 18, starting in Shelter Island at 5 p.m. The parade lasts approximately two hours. For more information, visit sdparadeoflights.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2014Gina McGalliard is a local freelance writer. Contact her at ginamcgalliard@gmail.com<\/u><\/a>\u00a0or follow her blog, ginamcgalliard.com\/mcgalliardmatters<\/u><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This year\u2019s theme will tip a hat to San Diego Zoo\u2019s birthday By Gina McGalliard Although we may not get a snowy \u201cwhite Christmas\u201d here in sunny San Diego, we do have our own coastal-themed holiday tradition: the San Diego Bay Parade of Lights, a procession of more than 80 decorated boats.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":233844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11557","_seopress_titles_title":"Parade of Lights expands and delights","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11557,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-233843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-mission-valley-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=233843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233843\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=233843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=233843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=233843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}