Skip to Content

Christmas Afloat 2015

This year marked the return of Christmas Afloat in Tuscaloosa. This is a boat parade down the Black Warrior River. Teams decorate boats and participate in a river parade. This annual event came to a screeching halt in 2011 after the April tornadoes destroyed the marina, thereby destroying most of the boats that participated each year.

This year, they brought it back and I was honored to be asked to participate. My Sister-out-law (We are like peas and carrots but we call ourselves the Outlaws…) has a cousin who owns a boat. This is the same boat Stephen has been helping with. Stephen was originally scheduled off work so we both jumped at the chance to help decorate and then participate. He was called into work so it was just me and Mona and let’s just say, we had a BLAST!!

All this went down the last week of the semester for me so Mona and her family did the decorating work. It wasn’t easy. There were lights, sockets, lamps, inflatables, etc to juggle. This being the first year, nobody had any idea what they were doing and that made it even more fun. The day was forecasted to be cloudy and brutally cold, but it was clear and not quite to brutal. We were ready with lots of layers but midday was gorgeous.

snoopy

 

 

 

 

 

 

train

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the final product, (photo courtesy of mj scott found on Facebook). Later, we found out that we won 1st place in our division!! And yes, there was more than 1 boat in the division Winking smile.

 mj scott facebook

Here are some pictures I was able to capture from the boat. After the parade, we sat in the water and watched the fireworks display. It was a FANTASTIC night!

boat 9wm 

boat 11wmboat 10wmboat 13wmboat4wmboat5wmfireworks1wmfireworks4wmfireworks6wmfireworks7wmfireworks8wm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

fireworks9wm

Julia

Tuesday 1st of March 2016

We just moved to Tuscaloosa in December and I was so excited to go to this! We got down there and it was freezing and my poor father in law was having problems with his ankle so we didn't stick around. I caught glimpses of boats as we drove by though! Next year we will be prepared :)