Happy Fourth!

I have never lived in a city that was so festive around the Fourth of July.  Seriously, Juneauites know how to party like it’s 1776.

Every year, the night before the Fourth (technically the morning of) at midnight, a huge fireworks show happens.  It’s so big that even Harrison Ford has brought his yacht up the Gastineau Channel a few times to watch it.  Before the big show, the citizens of Juneau have their own shows, shooting off biguns that I’m pretty sure are illegal for common folk every else in the United States. 

Eric, his parents that came to visit—yay!—and I watched the pre-midnight fireworks until we dropped off Mom and Pop Johnson at their hotel around nine or ten.  When Eric and I came back home, I was set on hitting the hay stack, but he had other plans for us.   He convinced me—rather easily because who can say “no” to a face like his—to stay up long enough to watch the city fireworks show at midnight.

Ooooh.  Ahhhh.

Why at midnight and not at nine like normal fireworks shows?  Well, because we’re so far north, the days here are longer than the lower forty-eight.  Around this time of year, the sun rises at around 4:30 and sets around 10:00, so it’s not dark enough to really see fireworks until around midnight.

Anywho, my adorable husband (that’s how he gets away with murder) dragged me down to the beach on Douglas Island about midnight where we were delighted by a big-time show by a little city.

 In the morning, Eric watched the Brazil vs. Columbia game (a very patriotic thing to do) while I made this masterpiece (much more patriotic):

The following afternoon, there was a parade in downtown Juneau that later moved over to the main road in Douglas Island.  It had quite the variety of floats including candidates for political positions that were throwing candy into the crowds.  They for sure have the children’s votes. 

Wearing a mining hat whilst eating candy.

Eric's favorite part of the parade

A salmon-30-salmon.

Beep, beep.

There were lots of activities happening at Sandy Beach on Douglas Island (such as sandcastle building, soap box races, etc.), but Eric and I wanted to take advantage of our day off and instead vegged (sp) and watched Breaking Bad until we met up with his parents at a local restaurant for a Fourth of July dinner. 

We’ve done lots more in the past few weeks, including things with the in-laws.  Also, a post on Tiff’s wedding is coming up soon!