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Jul. 5th, 2006
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It rained a little on the 3rd, and we thought they'd postpone the Westfield fireworks and went to bed. They didn't postpone the fireworks. Still, there were 30,000 people in Stanley Park. I'm just as good with not having gone.
So, on the 4th, we set out to find a parking place at the Big Y (more specifically, the shopping center where the Big Y is located) from which to watch the fireworks for Springfield, across the Connecticut River. Actually, halfway across -- the fireworks were set off from the Memorial Bridge. We nosed into the overcrowded lot and miraculously found a place. We set up Sarah's little folding chair, a blanket, and a folding stool for me and watched the preliminary fireworks -- some may have been a local celebration; others were clearly stuff people had brought.
"Are these the ones?" Sarah asked. No, we told her. The real ones will start at 9:30, and they'll be bigger. "Can I have something to eat?" was her other main question. Cathy made a trip or two over to the McDonald's for snacks.
At 9:30, the real show started, with much larger -- and louder -- floral shells going off. Sarah liked the colors, but the noise was a bit overpowering. Still, she was brave. I asked if she wanted to watch from inside the car, and she liked the idea. She also wanted Cathy to sit inside and watch with her, which wasn't what Cathy really wanted to do. She ended up standing half in the door of the car so she could still see the rockets' red glare and the bombs bursting in air.
After taking all the pictures I could on one chip, and not wanting to scramble for another chip and miss the grand finale, I asked Sarah if she wanted to sit on my shoulders and watch the end. She had asked earlier if I'd hold her up there, and I said "later," so I thought I should give her a chance. She sat and watched with her hands on her ears. The finale did not disappoint.
Then we spent a half hour waiting to get out of the space we were in. Nobody was moving much for a long time. Then things seemed to loosen up all at once, and we rolled for home. Sarah got to bed about three hours later than usual, and still wanted to goof around and hear stories and such before going to bed, but when she finally stopped flailing around, she went to sleep pretty fast. This morning she complained about getting up, but she's back to normal now. Well, actually, complaining is normal, but she's not so tired now anyway.
.
It rained a little on the 3rd, and we thought they'd postpone the Westfield fireworks and went to bed. They didn't postpone the fireworks. Still, there were 30,000 people in Stanley Park. I'm just as good with not having gone.
So, on the 4th, we set out to find a parking place at the Big Y (more specifically, the shopping center where the Big Y is located) from which to watch the fireworks for Springfield, across the Connecticut River. Actually, halfway across -- the fireworks were set off from the Memorial Bridge. We nosed into the overcrowded lot and miraculously found a place. We set up Sarah's little folding chair, a blanket, and a folding stool for me and watched the preliminary fireworks -- some may have been a local celebration; others were clearly stuff people had brought.
"Are these the ones?" Sarah asked. No, we told her. The real ones will start at 9:30, and they'll be bigger. "Can I have something to eat?" was her other main question. Cathy made a trip or two over to the McDonald's for snacks.
At 9:30, the real show started, with much larger -- and louder -- floral shells going off. Sarah liked the colors, but the noise was a bit overpowering. Still, she was brave. I asked if she wanted to watch from inside the car, and she liked the idea. She also wanted Cathy to sit inside and watch with her, which wasn't what Cathy really wanted to do. She ended up standing half in the door of the car so she could still see the rockets' red glare and the bombs bursting in air.
After taking all the pictures I could on one chip, and not wanting to scramble for another chip and miss the grand finale, I asked Sarah if she wanted to sit on my shoulders and watch the end. She had asked earlier if I'd hold her up there, and I said "later," so I thought I should give her a chance. She sat and watched with her hands on her ears. The finale did not disappoint.
Then we spent a half hour waiting to get out of the space we were in. Nobody was moving much for a long time. Then things seemed to loosen up all at once, and we rolled for home. Sarah got to bed about three hours later than usual, and still wanted to goof around and hear stories and such before going to bed, but when she finally stopped flailing around, she went to sleep pretty fast. This morning she complained about getting up, but she's back to normal now. Well, actually, complaining is normal, but she's not so tired now anyway.
.