fool moon parade in ann arbor

I signed up with the Shutterbugs to go shoot the Fool Moon parade for April Fool's day in Ann Arbor. Eileen was unavailable, so I high railed Holly and Logan to go with me.

I really thought hard about how we should get downtown. With a festival and the popularity of being downtown on a nice night, I knew the traffic would be super heavy.

Logan was not a fan, but he reluctantly agreed to drive his new girlfriend and mom downtown. Such a brave lad. Such a brave mom for trusting a new driver to get us there safely. Outside of the few quick starts and stops, he did great. We found a spot to park and began our trek to the Art Museum in Ann Arbor.

The mission was to photograph the artists that line up outside the Museum. The first to show was this lady. She made this costume herself and is the proud owner of Pop Designs and Creations. She demonstrated how it lit up. She was so cold waiting for others to show.

Holly liked this structure. She kept saying, "I call this piece .... tic, tac, toe."

There were 3 different spots around Ann Arbor where people would meet up to begin their parade.

At exactly 8PM, all groups would start their parade to a party spot at the same time.

They trickled in.

And I moved between people to get candid shots.

I loved seeing the creations.

The creativity ....

and fun ideas ...

Finally we set off to parade around Ann Arbor.

The crowd of people grew as we walked and everyone on the street wanted to know what was happening.

The had a section blocked off on Washington street where the groups all met up.

It was most amazing thing! So many people with their luminance's. A DJ kicked out dance tunes and everyone was dancing!

This lady was on stilts.

We were packed in like sardines.

We finally left and wondered around while I tried to figure out where the heck we parked. Only took a few wrong turns. Got my steps in though.

It was really fun. Most of my pictures were pretty terrible, but I got in some practice time on shutter speed and ISO settings.

I think Holly and Logan had a good time too.

ann arbor derby dimes (a2d2) fresh meat - 2015

My daughter Jackie joined a roller derby league this year. She has spent many weeks with other "fresh meat" participating in a fresh meat boot camp.

I like the cool outfits and teeth guards.

Yep, hard at work? :)

She asked me to come take some action shots of her group.

And no one thought that was a bad idea.

It looked like fun! Until I saw someone fall hard on their hip.

Then I envisioned myself with a walker because of a broken hip.

So I'll leave it to the younger crowd. 

They go through drills every practice, practicing twice a week.

After completing 16 weeks, you have to take a skills test. 

Once you pass your skills test, you go into a bank of players. You also get to pick an awesome cool name like, "Infliction Vixen, Skim MILF, Murder".

Where you keep practicing until there is a spot you can try out for on a team.

There are competitive and non-competitive teams.

In a match, two teams compete against each other.

Each team has 5 players on the floor.

One player is called the "Jammer"

The rest are "Blockers"

The Jammer earns points by passing players, hitting and body slamming your way through the blockers.

While the blockers keep her getting through the line.

We watched a scrimmage while the fresh meat was doing skills training and it really looked like fun while getting a good workout. Now if they only have pads for the hips - I would be there!

ann arbor derby dimes, derby dash

My daughter Jackie is currently "fresh meat" for a new hobby - roller derby. She asked me to sign up for their derby dash - a 5K around Gallup Park in Ann Arbor, MI. It was a breezy, cloudy day on April 25th.

We were one of the few walkers, but I was too out of shape to run. Holly was relatively easy to talk into signing up, but Julia ...... really loves to sleep in on Saturday. With the threat of crossing Jackie - she finally consented.

It was well organized and they even had this guy running around. I tried to get the girls to take a picture with it - but ... well .... 

It was cold enough for this dog to be wrapped up inside the girls jacket. :)

We started lining up for the race that was to begin at 11:30. And so it began ...

 There were some rowing teams out on the lake that day. It actually was pretty busy with lots of activity.

Still protesting and grumbling, we finally got under way. Julia decided on a strategy to sprint from park bench to park bench so she could sit and wait for Holly and I to catch up.

After one mile she was ready to quit, but she didn't. And we made our way around the lake.

Every quarter mile they had lots of derby girls and family cheering us on. It made me smile.

At two miles Julia told me the race was hurting her soul. When the finish line was in sight, we sprinted to finish the race. Julia was determined to come in first and she did.

Holly was a trooper the whole time and did really well. The last 5K we did, I had to pull her most of the way. We walked this one and she did great! They gave us medals for completing the race.

We totally did it! William and Jackie ran the race, the they were there probably 10 mins before we finished. But hey ... we finished. I think our time was about 50 mins.

We went out to lunch afterwards and Julia told us this was her first award ever. She wore this medallion all day and was very pleased with herself.