Rain on roses, but no whining

A downpour can’t douse high spirits of Newporters at Rose Parade as city float takes an elite prize.Newport Beach residents who traveled to Pasadena Monday were soggy but ecstatic after the city’s float took a top prize in the 2006 Rose Parade.

Buckets of rain dampened the parade for the first time in 51 years, but a little thing like a deluge didn’t wilt Newporters’ spirits. The city’s ocean-themed float won the Lathrop K. Leishman Trophy, which goes to the most beautiful float from a noncommercial sponsor. It’s considered the second-highest honor after the sweepstakes award, said Janis Dinwiddie, a consultant working on Newport Beach’s centennial activities.

Newport Beach was one of 14 cities to enter a float in the parade; there were 45 floats in all.

“It was very, very wet but lots of fun,” said Newport Beach Mayor Don Webb, who was one of nine riders on the city’s float. “There’s zillions of people; everyone was so happy and cheerful and waving at you, it just made you want to smile.”

Fiesta Parade Floats built Newport’s award-winning entry, which honored the city’s 2006 centennial. The float’s base looked like the ocean and supported leaping dolphins, a ship’s bow and figurehead, two smaller sailboats, and a giant oyster shell containing a pearl. The ocean was created with about 30,000 blue and white flowers.

The float held the 29th position in the parade lineup, between the USC marching band and the car carrying parade grand marshal and former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Under their rain gear, most of Newport’s float riders wore Hawaiian shirts specially designed by Reyn Spooner for the centennial. The two children on the float, daughters of major donors to centennial events, were riding the dolphins, clad in wetsuit-like outfits from Jack’s Surfboards.

Madison Hodgkins, 10, described the float as “really cool,” and said she liked that the dolphins moved up and down.

The rain discouraged a few people from making the trip, but five busloads -- about 200 people -- left around 6 a.m. Monday from Newport Beach to watch the parade from the grandstands, city recreation director Marie Knight said.

“The wind was at our back, so we hardly felt the wind at all and the rain wasn’t in our face -- and the float was to die for,” said Karen Johnson, 66, who braved the weather with the Newport crowd.

“It was well worth every minute of sleep I missed this morning.”

The people who rode the float had to get to Pasadena even earlier than the spectators. Webb said he left Newport Beach at 3 a.m., and he didn’t get a chance to whoop it up until after the parade was over.

“You don’t get time to celebrate on the float,” he said. “My arm’s about to drop off from waving and saluting at people.”