Fireworks on the Fourth in Seattle

I'm getting behind on my posts, but even though we've been doing lots of crazy stuff lately I have to go back to last week and post about the fourth of July because the longer I wait the less likely you all are going to even remember it.

We are lucky to live right in the best neighborhood for viewing Seattle fireworks. In Seattle the big fireworks are set off from a boat in Lake Union and they are best viewed from the beautiful GasWorks Park, which we live less than a mile from.

Because we live so close I invited over a bunch of people for a BBQ Wed afternoon, and proposed we all walk down to the park afterwards to view the fireworks. It seems a lot of our neighbors had this idea, and by late afternoon it was getting hard to park even where we live. Lemonade and soda stands were popping up on the corners and our neighbors were selling off driveway parking spots.

When we got to GasWorks I was stunned at how many people there were. It must have been thousands. We couldn't even get across the park. While we were waiting for the show we could see fireworks going off in the nearby neighborhoods all around us (they are illegal in the city of Seattle but legal in several of the surrounding cities, or so I've heard). Also they were having a big party in GasWorks, which had been going on all day - music, beer for sale, corndogs, cotton candy, corn on the cob, and other venues. We had to go through security on our way there.

The fireworks were spectacular. They were choreographed to music that they played over speakers (I heard they used to be choreographed to an orchestra that was set up right in GasWorks Park), and that alone was brilliant. They lasted almost a half an hour and every set was like the grand finale of previous shows I've seen. They had all kinds of neat and pretty ones in creative combinations.

Afterwards we joined the thousands of people leaving the park, my friends raced for their cars to try to beat the traffic home, and we were very glad we went. The only trouble was, we were all exhausted (especially my friend that had carried his 1-yr old on his back the whole way there and the whole way back). Also more fireworks went off in our neighborhood afterwards, and people were having trouble finding their cars and some were standing in the middle of the street yelling about it (they may have had some beer to go with those fireworks).

It was very neat being in the neighborhood where all the action was but if I hadn't gone to the show it may have been good to go elsewhere for the evening because you're kind of sucked right into it whether or not you want to be in our neighborhood. I was also very impressed with the whole event and the excitement the city shared for it (it was a little like the State Fair in Minnesota, which everyone drops everything for).

Up next: we are going to a preview of the new Harry Potter movie!! It's tonight, and I can't wait.