4th Of July

In New York it is illegal to purchase fireworks for personal use, unlike in Washington where you see fireworks stands on every corner. To most people I know, not being able to light your own fireworks is practically a sin, but I have never really been into that so it doesn't matter to me at all. Don't get me wrong though, Independence Day is probably my favorite holiday all year. I love watching the big fireworks shows and being filled with pride for my country. I love the summer festivities and the fresh fruit and all the flags and red, white, and blue everywhere. I love it all. Fortunately, I live in a military community, so although we can't light our own, there is no shortage of fireworks to be seen. I think there were big fireworks shows every night the whole week of the 4th. We went to 2 shows and had a lot of fun.

The first show was at a park near our house on the 2nd. This was definitely one of the best 4th of July events I have attended. This park is a really nice park and it is set high up on a hill, so you can overlook the city from the field, past the treeline. The Syracuse Symphony came and did an outdoor concert of patriotic songs in the evening, and there were soldiers from Ft. Drum there with 5 real cannons, which actually accompanied the symphony during one of the songs which was awesome. Apparently there are cannons actually written into the song, so it was neat that they could do that. Anyway, it was exactly how a 4th of July show should go. The symphony is playing as it is starting to get dark, the cannons go off, and then the fireworks start. So you are looking out over the city, listening to a patriotic song, seeing the fireworks explode in the air, and scanning down to see the soldiers all standing next to the cannons saluting. It was amazing, but you probably had to be there to get the real effect. Here is a little video and some pictures to help you appreciate it:




Madeline had a better time watching the crowd than the fireworks (during which she promptly fell asleep).


Just a sampling of the skyline...



The second show we went to was at the house of someone in our church ward. They live up in the Thousand Islands Region, which is about 45 minutes from our place (yes, our ward boundaries are that big... thankfully, we only live about 3 minutes from the church building). The Thousand Islands area is basically filled with multi-million dollar homes owned by really rich or famous people (like the founder of Columbia sportswear), and some of them are only occupied for about 2 weeks out of the year. There is a castle out there, called Boldt Castle, that is a big tourist destination. Long story short, this guy was building this castle for the love of his life ad then she died before it was finished so it never got finished but the landscaping and the part that is done is gorgeous. So anyway, these people in our ward have a perfect view of Boldt Castle from their property, and every year they do a big fireworks show over the castle. It also happened to be the birthday of the woman who lives there, so the whole ward was invited over and we had a big birthday party and stayed to watch the fireworks, which were really cool. Madeline stayed awake for them this time, and after each round she would clap and say, "Yay! More?" Unfortunately, my battery started dying shortly after arrival, so I didn't get many pictures. Here are a couple for your enjoyment: