Monday, July 5, 2010

the phil505 fireworks extravaganza

My fourth of July started off by sleeping in. I flew in extra late Saturday night thanks to an extended stay in Minneapolis. I got up with just barely an hour to spare before church started. Had lunch out with some friends and promptly came home and took a nice long nap. Not only did I have jet lag, but I knew we'd be up late while what would soon sound like a war zone would be going on around us.

There's really quite no place like Portland/Vancouver on the fourth of July. Everybody and their brother is shooting off fireworks. And I mean everybody. My husband is no exception. While I was away in Ohio, he stocked up at one of the local fireworks stands. It is legal in Clark County, where we live, to shoot them off, but not anywhere else. But you would never know that to hear all the sonic booms that echo off the mountains around us.

We had talked about buying tickets to go to watch the fireworks at Fort Vancouver, but instead we saved a whole bunch of money and we didn't even switch our car insurance to Geico. OK, there really wasn't any money saved. But from our front yard, we could see not only the fireworks shot off from our street, but the whole neighborhood, as well as the ones at the Vancouver Rodeo. Yes, Vancouver has a rodeo. Apparently there are cowboys in these here parts.

Here's the torch. Look out, Lady Liberty.

Up close and personal.
Why do guys like blowing stuff up so much? Look at that happy face :)
Over top the neighbor's house. They spent a lot more money.
Gearing up for the grand finale. Is that a look of anticipation or what?
We survived. No one got their hand blown off. The house didn't catch fire, and yes, I was worried about that because the neighbor kids were shooting off Roman candles. Have I ever told you how much I HATE Roman candles? And everything else they shot off was going right over our roof. So I'm always nervous when the professionals are doing their jobs a couple miles away. But all is well. And I'm sure there will be more tonight. That's just how it works out here.

No comments: