Kings fans make pilgrimage downtown for Stanley Cup parade

Fans traveled from far and wide Monday to attend a parade in downtown Los Angeles celebrating the Kings’ Stanley Cup victory.

Will Jacobs, 22, lives in Chico but has been a Kings fan since his childhood growing up in Thousand Oaks. On Friday at 2 a.m., he began the approximately 470-mile drive to L.A. to watch the game at home with his family. After the Kings’ thrilling 3-2 double-overtime victory over New York, he decided to stay through the weekend and watch the parade on Monday.

He has to be back at work Tuesday but said he has an opportunity to go to another Kings celebration on Wednesday in Redondo Beach, so he’s thinking about skipping a few more days of work.

Thirty-year-old Abel Perez drove 130 miles from Coachella with his wife and kids to see the parade.

Perez, who carried a makeshift Stanley Cup made from a five-gallon water container, a gallon ice cream container, a butter container, a cookie dough container and a salad bowl, drew the attention of many fans who flocked to take pictures with his trophy.

But he said the best part of the parade was seeing his children’s faces when they saw the Kings players pass by.

Shawn Lewy, 25, of Bakersfield, has been a Kings fan since he was a kid. During the Finals series, he convinced his sister to drive him to Los Angeles if the Kings won the Stanley Cup.

On Monday, they woke up at 5 a.m. and drove 110 miles to attend the celebration in downtown. The family attended the parade when the Kings won the championship two years ago and said there was more people the second time around.

But Lewy, his sister Sarah said, is a die-hard: “You can’t say he’s a bandwagoner because he’s not.”

Plus, she added, “It’s a chance to get out of the hot valley.”

And the family plans to make a day of it while they are in Los Angeles, said Susanna Lewy, Shawn’s mother.

“We’re going to walk around a bit after,” she said. “Until the street cleaners come taking the confetti away.”