see fireworks!

We used to go to the annual fireworks festival when I was a kid, staying up past our bedtime and heading down to the beach with the family and in later years with blankets and a gaggle of friends, but I can’t remember the last time I went with intent, in fact quite the opposite. It’s become too crowded and crazy, so whatever is on the other end of town in preferable, but Wednesday night we were invited to come watch the show from our friend’s rooftop balcony just up from the water. How could we refuse?

It was Canada’s night, and the theme was the Wizard of Oz/No place Like Home. Unfortunately Isak got rather wigged out by the noise and wanted to watch from inside, but he’d slip into “wow!” mode, or pretend he was conducting the lights, or get distracted by all the stars, boats and helicopters. He seemed to forget being scared and talked about loving it all the way home.

The view (and show) was spectacular, the fireworks seemed bigger and brighter and had more complex movement than I remember. It was an extra treat, because the whole thing was supposed to be cancelled this year and several businesses stepped to save the day. I’m glad we went – flying monkeys and all.

...earlier today when I set this goal, but I did see fireworks. My friend who had invited me earlier this week was not up to going downtown tonight, so she invited me over to her place to watch the Macy’s fireworks in NYC on TV.

It was interesting to listen to my friend’s stories of living in NYC and watching the Macy’s fireworks display from her Manhattan apartment in years gone by.

Hmmm, according to this web site, there were six barges in the Hudson River involved in the fireworks display tonight. On my friend’s TV screen, you could only see four barges. And the web site says they used 40,000 shells. Goodness gracious, that’s an awful lot of fireworks.

I think I’ll mark this as “DONE.”