Thousands Turn Out for Irvine and Oceanside Tea Parties!

The weather on Thursday was perfect for tea partying.

I attended two events: The Non-Partisan Tax Day Rally at the Irvine Auto Center, just a few minutes from my home. And The Tax Day Tea Party at the Oceanside Pier Amphitheater.

According to the Orange County Register, citing event organizers, just "400" turned out for the Irvine tea party. But last year the Register claimed the just "hundreds" came out the April 15th tea party in Santa Ana (thousands turned out), and at the peak of Thursday's rally we easily had 800 people on hand in Irvine, quite possibly a thousand:

I took close to 150 pictures. I'll post more over the next few days. Meanwhile, some greats shots from the afternoon. Here's "Lady Liberty" starting off the rally with an invocation:

An excited patriot displays his poster, an awesome take-off on Ronald Reagan:

Yours truly (tea party professor) at the event:

Local opposition to ObamaCare:

One of my favorite signs of the whole day:

Another enthusiastic patriot:

The Secretary of State was able to make it, with her former president hubby:

Also President and First Lady Obama:

Lots of media teams on hand. Here's the KABC Los Angeles truck and a dude with the Gadsden flag:

Another great sign, from a genuine goddess:

Folks had a lot of professional signs with non-cluttered messages:

This is Kira Davis, who was interviewed at the Orange County Register, "I've had enough with the government taking our hard earned dollars and spending them in wasteful ways," she said. "I've met the nicest most open people today":

This patriot's got a Chuck DeVore sticker:

And he didn't go home disappointed. GOP Senate candidate Chuck DeVore running virtually neck-and-neck in a general election matchup with Barbara Boxer:

Steve Poizner spoke after DeVore, but more on him later. I took off a few minutes thereafter to have some lunch before heading down to Oceanside. AND HERE IT IS, OCEANSIDE, BELOW. And boy, was that a great crowd in North San Diego County, easily well-over a couple of thousand people. I said hello to the gentlemen from Irvine with the Reagan "recession" sign (partially obscured). We both laughed when I joked about two rallies in one day:

I kept moving up the stairs and then stood by a railing looking back down. Tea partiers are still arriving. It's about 4:30pm, the event's start time:

I walked around the amphitheater to get more crowd shots. Immigration's quite an issue around these parts:

Back up at The Strand, I came across this gentlemen hanging out with a friend, with another straightforward message for November. Notice the stage below, with the ocean backdrop. Great spot for a tea party:

This is Lloyd Prosser, who's a candidate for Oceanside City Council. A Marine Vietnam veteran, he noted during his speech that a year ago he was out in the stands as a fellow tea partier. This year he's a candidate for the Council. I heard a similar story at the Irvine rally, from one of the candidates for the GOP Central Committee. Amazing what's been taking place at the grassroots since the Obama-Dems took power:

The crowd's filling out now, but folks were still coming. I walked down the pier a bit for this shot. Sweet:

More media:

Walking back down now, you can get a feel for density of the crowd

I met up with Tim from Left Coast Rebel. He was on the lookout for tea party crashers, and he found some, "SEIU/ACORN/Fake Tea Party Plant at the Oceanside Tax Day Tea Party Doesn't Get Very Far":

GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner made it down to Oceanside as well. He doesn't seem so much like a tea partier, actually (and as I write this a Poizner ad comes on the television):

While hanging out, I surveyed the crowd for signs, and ran up the steps to this woman. She was flattered:

Chuck DeVore made it to Oceanside as well, and he immediately connected with the huge veterans' contingent (Camp Pendleton's nearby). DeVore rattled off variations in the "hooah!" greeting between the Army and Marines. He's a former reservist, and combined with his authentic conservative credentials, he was a crowd pleaser:

I'll have more tomorrow.

Thanks for reading!