Star-Spangled Bikes Celebrate Fourth With Great American Kids' Parade

They came wearing Uncle Sam hats and waving U.S. flags. Bicycles and riders were as red, white, and blue as they could be. The crowd came and came, lining up until the parking lot at Granada Avenue was Fourth-of-July sparkly and star-spangled from end to end.

It was time for the annual Great American Fourth of July Kids' Bike Parade, sponsored by Justin Rudd and his nonprofit Community Action Team. Eli Lunde, 3, of Long Beach told his mother, Paula Lunde: "Let's go!"

Then off the paraders went, rolling along a red carpet and past judges looking for the best patriotic costume. Five winners each received $10 prizes sponsored by the Exchange Club. Event co-sponsors included City Councilman Gary DeLong and the Long Beach Dept. of Parks, Recreation, Marine.

The parade pedaled along the beachfront bike path, down Bay Shore Avenue to Second Street and back, two miles of streaming red, white, and blue.

The fun continued afterward with a patriotic speech contest and an old-fashioned watermelon-seed spitting contest.

Parader Phoenix Soto, 5, of Long Beach stood happily afterward on the red carpet, his mom holding his $10 prize. "I won!" he said.