My wife and I live in an unincorporated area of Alameda County, California called Castro Valley. Every year we have a parade down our main street (Castro Valley Boulevard) to celebrate the opening of the local rodeo. And every year one of the highlights of the parade is the local high school marching band. This year it’s even more meaningful to us because that’s our grandson playing the cymbals!
The Castro Valley High School marching band participating in the annual parade that kicks off the annual rodeo.
Click on the photo to see a larger version of the photo.
This photo is my entry for this week’s Monochrome Madness Challenge which is hosted by Australian photographer Leanne Cole. Visit her website on Wednesdays (Tuesdays in Europe and North America) to see what Leanne and other photographers from all over the world are doing in monochrome these days.
The annual rodeo is scheduled for this weekend (May 18-20) at Rowell Ranch which is on Dublin Canyon Road just off the I-580 freeway between Castro Valley and Pleasanton. For more info see here.
Crow Canyon Journal 
It makes the parade that much more meaningful if a member of the family participates in the marching band. You must be very proud of your grandson.
Oh, we are! He also plays the drums, the xylophone and several other percussion instruments.
Too bad he looked away, but nice photo. Are you posting photos from the rodeo or do you not attend?
That’s one of the things I kept saying we would go to (while in Colorado) and then we moved before I could make good on it.
No, we have other plans for this weekend and rodeos are really not our thing. We have enjoyed some in the past, though. In fact, we once attended some rodeo events on the Big Island a long time ago! We were driving from Hilo to Kona in 1979 and came across some rodeo activities in Honokaa. It was fun watching the paniolos! Have you ever been to a Hawaiian rodeo? There’s one in Honokaa in a couple of weeks.
No. Wasn’t even aware they had them. I’ll have to take a look at the activities calendar again, but last I looked, I didn’t see a rodeo listed. They do have a celebration there all this week (dress up as a paniolo and shop the merchants) but I didn’t see a mention of any rodeo. I’ll look again.
By the way, I don’t need an excuse to go to Honokaʻa other than Tex and their malasadas.
Yup: 27th and 28th:
Great photo!
Thanks, Kerry!