SANTA ANA : Popeye and Olive Big Stars at Parade

With a giant Popeye balloon leading the way, the Times Orange County Holiday Parade will step off at 10:30 this morning along the streets of downtown Santa Ana.

With the weather forecast calling for sunny skies and temperatures in the 80s, the parade will begin at Civic Center Drive and continue north on Broadway to 17th Street to Main Street and concludes at Washington Street and Main.

The 90-minute parade will be shown on KHJ Channel 9, which will precede its telecast with a 20-minute performance by the Orange Song and Dance Company in a salute to this year’s parade theme, “Traveling to a Holiday Adventure.”

The parade lineup includes more than 25 floats, all adorned with floral decorations, 150 horses, and six helium balloons in addition to Popeye and Olive Oyl. (Parade officials say that the 75-foot-tall Olive balloon is the first ever to depict a character who is a woman.)

There will also be 16 marching bands from throughout Southern California and six other bands from other parts of the United States and Canada.

Parade grand marshals include Orange County Supervisor Thomas F. Riley and two aviation heroes who live in Orange County: Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, and 11-year-old Tony Aliengena, the youngest American to fly around the world.