According to a radio commercial that I heard in recent days John Adams predicted that Americans would be celebrating independence with fireworks across the nation. I don’t know if that is true or not but I know that my weekend was filled with fireworks, and best show was the one we put on our selves. A few choice beverages and snacks, a bunch of friends, and a few hundred explosives certainly was a great way to celebrate our nation’s birth.
I saw fireworks shows for four strait nights. The first two shows were at the Taste of Minnesota in St. Paul. It used to be held in front of the State Capitol for years, but they moved to Harriet Island three years ago. I’m Glad they did because it used to be too crowded. You couldn’t walk around, enjoy any of the events, or even get to the food booths. Now they even have enough room to have fair style rides, more booths, a second stage, and even more food booths. They have so much room that the attendance has gone up but it is much more open and easy to get around then it ever was at the State Capitol mall. In fact the Taste of Minnesota is really just a free mini-fair. In fact all the crazy people come out for both events and were out in force both nights at the taste!
The fireworks shows were ok. On Thursday night we watched from a bridge that overlooked the show, on Friday I watched from Harriet Island itself. Watching from the Island was better. I don’t think fireworks look as cool when you are looking down on them as they normally do. The show may have been bigger on Friday then Thursday as well. I did decide while I was watching these shows that I would rather have an intense show even if it is shorter than a long show with less going on at any given time. All in all I had fun both nights at the Taste of Minnesota even if it did cost Six bucks for cheese curds. LOL
A much better show was the one we put on ourselves. Saturday Joe, Colin, and I took Colin’s sweet new truck over to Wisconsin to get the good stuff. Unfortunately in Minnesota anything that leaves the ground is illegal. Crazy. So we went to Wisconsin an bought 48 major effects – the ones that launch 40-50ft and look like the big shows – one pound bottle rockets, several packs of medium sized bottle rocks, a ton of little bottle rockets, m-80s, strobe effects, crazy flying things, ground effects (like really big roman candles that have a base) and a few dozen roman candles. All in all there were several hundred explosions over the course of an hour and a half. By the end of the night the entire neighborhood was covered in a haze from our festivities! Quite fun. Next year we plan on even more (this year was twice as big as last).
The final show I went to was the city of Minneapolis at the Stone-Arch Bridge. We got there a little late as parking was hard to come by. It was much more crowed then the last couple of years so it was hard to get a decent spot to watch at. That being said the half of the show that was not behind a tree wasn’t all that spectacular. Oh-well maybe next year.
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