Friday, July 14, 2017

4th of July Celebrations 2017

The powers that be somehow could not garner enough support this year for the city to sponsor a fireworks display, so we thought we would go to one of the nearby towns to watch theirs instead. 
July 04 Hillcrest Parade1-001
So we got into the car and drove toward Clyde Lake, where the festivities were being held.  With the city not having a show this year, we figured a huge part of the 117,000 people living in the city would try to go watch this.  We opted not to drive all the way to the lake, but to park by the side of the road on the way there, as we had done once before. 
July 04 Hillcrest Parade-001
Little did we know that the place where we were parked only allowed us to see the tippity tops of some of the fireworks.  We decided that we would drive towards the lake and hopefully get to see SOME of the display before it was over.  Long story short, we drove the rest of the way there, made a U Turn and then started the way back, hopefully before the throngs got into their cars and started leaving as well.
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The little boy got to see the most, what with Daddy trying to maneuver in the traffic and me trying to help watch for people coming off of the curb.
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The next celebration we went to was at Hillcrest, for its Annual Neighborhood Parade.  We didn't manage to get the boy a patriotic t shirt this year, so he wore his Captain America t-shirt instead. I  mean, who could be more patriotic than Captain America, aye?
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The little boy loves to explore and that was exactly what he did while we were waiting for the parade to start.
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Look at what treasures he found... green acorns.
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Uncle Lin was there as well!
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The little boy got out in front to grab some of the candy that was being tossed to the on lookers, handed them to Daddy, and has promptly forgotten all about them.  He isn't too big into candy.
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After the parade, we adjourned to the Multi Purpose Room for home made and store bought ice cream and cookies!
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The little boy tried a few spoonfuls of a few kinds, but favored the chocolate ones :)
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After that, we stopped by the fireworks stands on the way home to get the little boy some XXL sparklers.
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That night, we went and got some of the fireworks that we had saved over the years. This was part of the stash that we had bought when we had gone back to the stands close to midnight in previous years and gotten them at deeply discounted prices.
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We live outside the city limits, and there was no burn ban at the moment.  Even so, we were very careful to watch all the embers and whatnot that we could.  Needless to say, the little boy had a Blast :)
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The next morning, we set off some black snakes, much to the little boy's delight to round off a memorable celebration. :)
July 04 Hillcrest Parade22-001

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