By Lookout Staff

July 5, 2011 -- It was an old-fashioned Independence Day parade in Santa Monica, as several thousand residents lined the City's quaint Main Street to watch civic leaders, local businesses and organizations file by on a blistering hot beach day.

Appropriately titled “Fourth of July at the Beach,” the parade -- sponsored by the Ocean Park Association and led by Captain Angus Alexander, a 31 year veteran of the local lifeguards -- unfolded just a couple of blocks from a packed shoreline, where a lifeguard compared the bike path to rush hour on the freeway.

Seven formers mayors took part in the parade. (From left) Judy Abdo, Michael Feinstein, Nat Trives, Paul Rosenstein, Ruth Yannatta-Goldway, Bob Holbrook and Dennis Zane. (Photos by Frank Gruber)

The participants walked, rode bicycles, fire trucks, flat beds and antique cars. Many dressed in red, white and blue and waved flags. One little girl came encased in a cupcake, another pedaled her tricycle and at least one man wore a tutu.

Mayor Richard Bloom rode a segway to tout the City's reputation for sustainability and seven former mayors joined in the parade, with Bob Holbrook, the longest serving member of the council, driving his old Model-T.

Mayor Bloom rides a segway.

There were ball clubs and meal providers, officers and firefighters and lifeguards, boy scouts, girl scouts, conservationists, preservationists, Elks and a life-sized cut-out of Elvis.

It doesn't get much more American than that.