[njbchbum]

why do you go?

hubby is the fireworks aficianado in our house - i can't say i even come close to being a fan of them. but hubby will just sit around and pout if i do not accompany him to a display - so i go in order to avoid such drama.

now, we went last nite to a community display not far from our home. it was the only one in the area last nite, so folks had come from far and wide for the show. i know they came from far and wide because of the STRESSFUL parking situation! we arrived approx one hour before show time and got one of three remaining parking spots in a distant lot. we were fortunate that we could watch the show while remaining in our vehicle.

while waiting for the show we got quite another! crying children who did not want to be there or wanted ice cream they were told they could not have or wanted to use a restroom that was nowhere in sight; upset or frustrated parents because one spouse or the other had forgotten something or was not moving fast enough to keep kids from traffic or for getting them into a stroller; drivers who parked their cars in traffic lanes because there were no spaces avaiable and were being screamed at by other drivers having difficulty negotiating their away areund the illegally parked car; a police car who simply drove thru the parking lot for some unknown reason because he was not ticketing the illegaly parked cars or having the drivers move them - maybe to make sure cars were not being vandalized - who knows?

the display was a nice one and when over we bolted from the parking space in hopes of clearing the lot quickly - of course, we expected otherwise! now we were confronted with honking horns from drivers who had no place to go because of the traffic in front of them; crying children; mothers asking "do you have the blanket?" or "where's johnny?"; people walking to their cars willy nilly with the last thought on their mind being that a car was NOT going to stop as they just walked in front of the car; the walkers who walked 2/3 abreast in traffic rather than cross the lane and walk on the sidewalk; and the driver who rather than alternate vehicles one at a time to get into a single lane insisted that he barge into traffic without 'waiting his turn'.

wouldn't a nicer nite be spent on one's patio with a mai tai, pina colada, margerita or just a beer listening to some john philip sousa tunes?

oh well - it looks like i am in for another adventure tonite as we will be taking in the local display down on the oceanfront - where there has been a day long celebration along the promenade! oh, my, my!

[jnieman]

That's what I remember about going to the fireworks. Once we went to the Detroit fireworks. Had our blanket all spread out in a sea of other blankets along the waterfront all ready for the fireworks. As the evening went on, more and more people piled into the area and before we knew it people were walking on the blankets to try to get to the front stepping on children. We got up and got out of there. Later we heard there was a shooting nearby.
It didn't give us the warm fuzzy fireworks feeling. Now we skip the fireworks, but normally if you look out on the horizon on the 4th, you can see fireworks going off somewhere in the distance. That's close enough for me. I'll take the pina colada on the patio any day.

[bkcunningham1]

You should relax one evening and go to one of the displays at Disney World. They do them every night of the week for 365 nights a year at two parks. I go back and forth between Epcot's fireworks and the Magic Kingdom's. I love them both. Everytime I see the lights dancing on Cinderella's castle and the skies exploding behind it in the sky, I swear that is the best show I've ever seen.

And whenever I go with adults to Epcot and see the laser light show with pyrotechnics I swear it tops them all. LOL They are both spectacular.

[njbchbum]

ya know, bk - been there and done that! last time was the frozen winter of 2009, i believe! next time i hafta see them i think i want it to be from the terrace by chef mickey - unless i'm staying at bay lake tower and can go up to the roof deck with my cocktails!