Fireworks....

[Lynnie]

Does your city/town put on a good show? Several good shows? Parades? Do you make it a tradition to go?

I live in Philly. There''s a huge celebration downtown, with vendors, music (Sheryl Crow and the Roots are the headliners this year). A weekend-long ice cream festival (DH & I plan on going Friday). Saturday night fireworks at the Art Museum. The ballpark also puts on a good show... I think this year it''s the 9th and 10th.

I know there are a lot of Philly area PSers. Did anyone hear about the fireworks show up at Philly Park (the racetrack?); they''re billing it as the "largest fireworks display on the east coast" (and it''s being done by Zambelli''s firework company). BUT they''re not having big boomer fireworks, so as not to scare the horses.

I love the celebration downtown, but the crowd is always huge, and the bathroom situation sucks (stinky port-a-potties, and not enough), and getting home is always a nightmare, even if you use public transportation. So maybe we''ll check out the Philly Park show this year...


So what''s the celebration like in your town??

 

[atroop711]

I''m in Manhattan and the Macy''s Fireworks are literally outside of my window. It''s great BUT this year they are moving them to the west side (Hudson River) so I can''t look out my window

and see them live

 

[misskitty]

I''m going to park a reply in this thread, with the hopes that someone will post about St. Louis. This will be my first 4th of July here, so I''m not sure how things are (although I''ve heard the fireworks by the Arch are pretty sweet!).

 

[wifey2b]

No

I guess I live in Hickville - total time about 15 minutes from first to last - I don''t even bother going - too depressing - lol
I know the Mall here sponsors the fireworks, but I would think since his brother is the seller of fireworks he would at least get him a good deal!! lol :}

 

[princessplease]

Lynnie, I''m in south Jersey, and we most likely will check out Penn''s Landing. Thanks for the information about the racetrack. FI and I may have to head there instead of Penn''s Landing. It''s so much fun at Penn''s Landing, though!!!

 

[Lynnie]

Princess... I forgot to mention the Penns Landing ones! So there''s gonna be 5 big displays this year... Penns Landing, the Art Museum, 2 at the ballpark, and the one at Philly Park. I missed last year''s downtown (it was raining, right?), but we went to one of the ballpark ones.

Misskitty, I think the ones at the arch are supposed to be one of the best shows in the country! DH LOVES fireworks, so whenever one of those shows on TV comes on, we always end up watching. I think I remember hearing that that is one of the best! I hope someone from your area chimes in!

Awww, wifey... I''m not good w/emoties, or I''d make a firework one for ya I''d be disappointed too if I lived in an area without a fireworks show. Maybe it''s not too late for a weekend getaway

... ore you guys could just make fireworks of your own! Or you could just look at all your sparklies... I''m sure they put on quite a show!

atroop, what a bummer that they''re moving the fireworks! How awesome that you''ve been able to see them from your window! No bathroom issues

 

[Italiahaircolor]

Well Chicago goes banana''s for the 4th...we have local feasts, but there is also The Taste...

But my DH and I made a trip to Indiana this past week and stocked up on a ton of fireworks...we''re gonna light it up ourselves.

 

[monarch64]

My town will most likely not have a fireworks display this year. The money for the fireworks has to come from donations, and the show scheduled was said to cost ~$16k this year and there have only been a few hundred dollars donated as of last week. A plant owned by GM closed here recently, I rather doubt the town will be getting $16k from the townspeople since so many are out of work. However, there may be some 11th hour miracle donation made...who knows.

The 4th is probably my favorite holiday out of all of them. I always made a point of coming home and spending time with family, now I live in the area again and will definitely go over to my parents'' home on Sunday and possibly watch the fireworks from their patio--they are about 5 miles outside of town but are on a big hill and have a great view of the skyline (which consists of the steeple of the Catholic church, ha ha). If not, my brother always gets lots of (probably illegal) fireworks and puts on a pretty great display himself, as well as some of the neighbors.

 

[elrohwen]

I live in a small-ish town in CT. Every year they set up a carnival at the mall around July 4th time. On the 4th, people fill up the mall parking lot and bring chairs, picnics, etc and wait for the fireworks to start while riding carnival rides. We live on a hill above the mall, so our first year here we were able to watch the fireworks while sitting in our upstairs hallway and looking out the window. Very romantic

This year I''ll be in Boston for the 4th because of a friend''s wedding nearby. The plan is to make it to the fireworks, so hopefully it''s not raining!

My best memories were probably when I lived in Pittsburgh. My friend''s dad had a boat and would take us out, anchor in the Ohio River, and we would watch the fireworks they set off from a nearby barge. Very fun. He''d also give us alcohol (we were 19 or 20), so that made it more fun of course

 

[somethingshiny]

I used to live outside of Dallas and attended fireworks at the Cowboys stadium often. I''ve never seen a comparable show. It seemed like we watched for hours and our ice creams would melt before we could eat them. We would play with all the kids, strangers that we''d never see again, and have a blast. On the way home my little sisters would "ooh" and "ahhh!" at the street lights.


Now, I live in small town central! My town does put on a show, approximately 15 minutes of singular fireworks, meaning ONLY one at a time for the whole show. The town I recently moved from (which is smaller than my current town) has a decent 20 min show over the river. I think the river makes it a decent show, not really the fireworks themselves. They also have a small parade with buckets of candy and loads of soldiers. It''s so sweet to see the little boys on the sidewalk taking off their hats when they come by.

The best show in the area is the show my dad and his buddies put on in a tiny town of 200 people. Hundreds of people from the neighboring towns come and line up along the fields to watch it. They put all the money in themselves, buy illegally, and warn the authorities ahead of time to avoid getting arrested.

My dad blew off a good portion of his hand during one of the shows. He got too close to a short fuse. So, in addition to the fireworks, the patrons were also presented with ambulance lights! OOOHH AHHHH!!

 

[princessplease]

Date: 7/2/2009 9:38:25 AM
Author: Lynnie
Princess... I forgot to mention the Penns Landing ones! So there''s gonna be 5 big displays this year... Penns Landing, the Art Museum, 2 at the ballpark, and the one at Philly Park. I missed last year''s downtown (it was raining, right?), but we went to one of the ballpark ones.

I believe it was raining last year. The Phils always host AWESOME fireworks!!!!

 

[Iowa Lizzy]

I''ve never been to the show in the town where we live, but every year I drive about 2.5 hours to my family''s condo on a lake and they have an AWESOME display over the water. There are just hundreds and hundreds of boats out directly underneath the fireworks, but we watch from our balcony with a group of family friends. It''s a little "resort" town and there''s also a carnival downtown, Fireman''s pancake breakfast, etc.

This is my FAVORITE holiday!

 

[KimberlyH]

In a ''burb of SD, we can see the fireworks from our house, in the far distance which is perfect for me because I''m terrified of the loud noise. We were in Portland last year, they put on a great show over the river (I watched for as long as I could stand it as DH loves fireworks). And the 3 years before that we''ve been in Chicago for the 4th and although I''m not a fan of Taste of Chicago it was fun to go to Navy Pier and watch from a distance.

 

[LadyBlue]

Live in manhattan and going to see the fireworks at my DH work, he works in the west side, and the company is making a small celebration so you can go and see the fireworks from there.

 

[Haven]

Chicago fireworks are fabulous. When DH lived in his condo on Lake Shore Drive we went up to his roof to watch them every year, and we could so many different fireworks displays it was crazy. And Navy Pier does a regular fireworks show every Saturday (and Weds, I think) so they really ramp up their display for the 4th. DH and I watched those Navy Pier fireworks from a swingset on Lake Shore Drive on our very first date.

We live in a suburb of Chicago now, this will be our second year watching the fireworks. Last year I thought they were amazing, but we had just gotten married earlier that day so I was sitting in the grass in my wedding gown, cuddled up to my new DH so I thought EVERYTHING was amazing that day.

ETA: Our town also has a great doggy parade on the 4th every year, it's to encourage adoptions at the shelter one town over where we adopted our little Bailee. "Alums" are encouraged to walk their pups in the parade!

 

[Diamond*Dana]

Our city does put on a nice fireworks display, but it gets too crowded for us to deal with the kids...it takes way too long to get out of there with all the traffic. We usually anchor the boat out on Lake Erie in the city that FIL lives in, but this year we have other plans that do not include any fireworks.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

I''m not even sure what is going on this year. There is at least one display in Seattle, but the paper said "good luck" getting a seat as it''s suppose to be insanely crowded this year.

There''s other shows too, up north, etc., but we plan to just buy fireworks from the reservation and light them off with friends.

Personally, I''m not to big on fireworks and I hate the smell left over afterward. My kids like them, though, so we will get tons of sparklers for them to enjoy.