To celebrate, we watched 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' and are now on our way to the Charles River to watch the fireworks from the Boston Pops concert. Should be fun... and crowded. But what the heck.

And lil' scaeagles is right, the only good fireworks are at Disneyland. :)

We decide dagainst fighting the crowds tonight, and am I glad we did. BIG t-storm going on, which is beating the hell out of any show they'd be likely to give us downtown.:D

I should probably get offline now......

" lil' " ????

Yeah, regarding your 12 year old's comment...
:)

We had fun. Decided, for the first time in the 5 years we've lived in Irvine, to check out the big fireworks show at Heritage Park. You could pay to get into the high school stadium itself, or just hang out in the park. We chose to hang out in the park. Strapped our new backpack chairs on, and made the 15 minute walk at about 6:00 with dinner in the pouches. The park was hopping, but not packed. We instantly found a shady spot by the big pond to eat and lay out for a while.

By 7:30 we were in the mood to stretch our legs, so we packed up the chairs (so fast and easy, freaking LOVE those chairs) and wandered. We decided to see what we could see of the goings on inside the stadium, which started at 3 in the afternoon. Turns out to be a good thing we didn't pay to get in as mostly it appeared to be a way to pen your children up for 7 hours and have them be happy about it. Which is awesome if you're a family with kids. Several hours where they can run around, listen to the family freindly band playing "Celebrate". But not exactly made for a couple of DINKs like us.

But, we did notice that we seemed to have stumbled across the right spot to watch the fireworks. Our best clue being the tarp people. As a general rule, when in a crowd situation...follow the people with the tarp(s). We sat ourselves down right behind a family that was prepared enough to have attached tarps to the fence in front of them to block out the sun that would otherwise been in their eyes. Clearly been doing this for a while, clearly knew where the good view was. And here we were an hour before the show, no problem getting a good view, despite the thousands of people there. It's a freaking huge park.

The fireworks show was great. Not Disney, of course, but on occasions it's nice to see a smaller show like this. Without the sky-high budget of Disney, they have to get creative in their spending, and therefore creative in the use of what they've got. And this was a darn good show. They had low level stuff launching from the end of the football field (including a very impressive salute to the armed forces that consisted of about 5 minutes of constant, loud, bright small shells of blue, red, white, and green to represent the Aiforce, Marines, Navy, and Army respectively). The big aerial stuff launched from behind the stadium. We had a really good view of those, save for a bit o'blockage from one tree (lesson learned). But it was a great display, lots of big shells, some pretty cool creative shells as well.

Then there was the finale. First was the obligatory dumping of a billiions shells of every shape size and color. That was awesome. Then that ended with a barrage of about a dozen of what amoutned to precussion grenades launched skyward. One bright flash, and then a loud bang. That was cool. That ended, the crowd cheered, but those that have been around long enough were saying 'hold your positions'. They knew something was coming. Then, just as the echo of the pre-finale made it's way back to us (which, being about 15 seconds later, was pretty cool), out comes a hail of bigger, brighter, louder blasts...with sparkly. Nice. Then the lights came on...only to see another volley of colorful fireworks shoot off. :D

So then we joined the mass of humanity funneling out, and were back home within 20 minutes. And of course Munchkin, who I was worried about all night, appeared entirely unphased by it all, as always.

Sigh, why must we find the cool things to do around here when we're planning on moving within a month or 2?

This was my first year in, oh, a quarter-century without plans. I was all set to go to a party in Highland Park and watch local fireworks (and perhaps Rose Bowl) from the roof of the Victorian manion on the hill that some of you have been to .... when my friend Laurie called me and asked if I'd go to Disneyland with her, despite having just been there the previous night for her birthday.


Ah, an AP is a wonderful thing. Knowing that Remember alone would be the best fireworks show put on anywhere in, hmmm, America this 4th ... I consented. What a great decision that was.

At 7:30-8ish, it was a breeze to get into the parking structure, through bag check, through the turnstiles, up Main Street, and out to Small World mall ... with a ride on the Matterhorn for good measure. The Park was decidedly less crowded than it was the night before, really quite empty for a July 4th imo.

Let me just say that Disneyland put on perhaps the most spectular Fourth of July fireworks display in history. Small World Ground Zero was definitely the spot to see this spectacle.

Following Remember, they did some pyro to the song Golden Dream, and then did an extended barage to an Armed Forces medley. The extensive finale was like pyronuclear war! I've never seen anything like it in my life. It was soooooooo good.

Since it was a one night affair, the show was more a traditional "display" than a themed masterpiece like the Remember that preceeded it. Ahem, fine by me. When Disneyland displays all the new pyro toys they have acquired, it's quite an amazing thing to behold.

And they must have borrowed quite a few cannons ... because for the last 3 minutes, they started filling up a quadrant of the sky that I'd never seen them venture into before. The final 2 minutes was a continual barrage of everything they've got. The high werks, the low werks, the white flag, the double fan, full crackle-sky, full waterfall sky, and so many shells going off in a vast area that I thought I would self-combust from the thrill and excitement and visual magnificence!



Oh, I'm so doing this again next year.

Cool! Disneyland rocks. :)

We BBQ'd some steaks and grilled some veggies (by "we" I mean Chris) and spent the night with kitties watching the Tour. The sounds were intense, as fireworks re illegal in Long Beach. :rolleyes: Poor Puppy was freaked. It was a very nic evening and I'm happy to be home.

They were amazing.

Oh Steve I wish I knew you guys were there! We had *the spot* with room! I've never seen it from IASW though. The castle had projections.

Here's what I kept saying through our fireworks:

Me: "You know where they have really good fireworks?"
Ralphie: "Where?"
Me: "Disneyland."

-------

Me: "You know, Disneyland's fireworks is timed to the music."

-------

Me: "You know where they have really good fireworks?"
Ralphie: "Disneyland?"
Me: "Yes."

-------

Me: "Disneyland would have had a better finale."

-------

Me: "You know who has better fireworks than Disneyland?"
Ralphie: "Disney World?"
Me: "No."
Ralphie: "Where?"
Me: "No place."

:D