**(Warning for some folks who may easily offend: semi-nudity and silly outfits in today’s photo, but it is as seen by thousands of Seattlies every year in broad daylight!)**

This is a quick one because I really need to get back to my hundreds of Solstice Parade photos! I need to whittle it down to about 100 from about 8 times that…

Every year, Fremont (Seattle’s own ‘Center of the Universe’) hosts the most fun, crazy, and utterly amazing parade to usher in the Summer Solstice (otherwise known as Seattle’s summer that won’t start until after July 4th…). It starts with a huge amount of mostly naked bicyclists with beautifully and/or imaginatively-painted bodies – think Care Bears alongside Batman – whizzing down the main street accompanied by lots of laughs, cheers and some confused/amazed child faces, and an insane amount of photo-taking. Then there’s the ‘real’ parade of wacky and themed floats and marching bands, but it’s not the usual parade fare that many other cities see. Seattle is unique and colorful and soon I will post some photos so that everyone can see what I’m talking about.

Since the bicycle ride involves a lot of non-clothing, I will get a Flickr set linked up in case anyone wants to see that without being shocked by it here (in spite of the warning!). It’s all done in good fun and I love the open and accepting spirit that it’s all done in. Now if only Seattle would hurry up and get some warm weather so we can at least abandon some of our clothing…

This is one of my favorite photos that I took at last year’s Solstice Parade  Crossing fingers for sun soon!

xo ~ K

Not all the Greek runners in the original Olympics were totally naked. Some wore shoes. – Mark Twain