Well, it's come and past, another year of celebrating our country-dom! Recently I began to wonder what the difference, if any, was between patriotism and nationalism. Turns out, not that much. Patriotism is being proud of being a citizen of your country for no reason other than you are a citizen of your country. Nationalism is that except with political elements expressly included, essentially. If you really want to know more you can wikipedia that on your own.
As you can imagine, I spent the day with my own special brand of dysfunctional family :) (is there any other kind?). We watched the parade through downtown Steamboat Springs, CO, and since there was a gentle breeze and no humidity to speak of, it was a rather bearable temperature. Promptly following was lunch at Sweetwater Grill (very tasty but don't go with more than 10 people otherwise they seem to get frazzled and forget peoples entrees) followed by a jaunt to Pearl Lake for a quick dip. Then drinks and fun at a friends house, dinner at Rex's, gelato at Ciao Gelato. The day culminated in fireworks that would make Michael Bay very very proud.
Steamboat had the biggest fireworks display in the state of Colorado this year, and dominated the scene for the surrounding states, too. Sitting on a porch, watching the sky and my friends and family's faces light up as if they were in the daylight was nothing short of resplendent. Even with all the drama, all the tourists, all the small and large annoyances, I will always be transfixed by a stellar fireworks display. Fifteen minutes of pyrotechnics that felt like one enormous finale, I was captivated by this years explosions. The sound ricocheted off the mountains, rolling around our valley like thunder.
It was perfect.
I have seen fireworks in 2 cities that should out shine ours, Boston & Chicago. Both had such huge numbers of people that it was miserable to find a decent view. Chicago's fireworks were, well, pathetic. You know the fireworks that people sometimes smuggle from Wyoming into Colorado. The ones that are great compared to the dinky little ground based ones but are nothing compared to real fireworks? Well, those are the fireworks I saw in Chicago. Sorry, Windy City, but that was one "eh" display. Boston, you had an amazing display. That I watched on TV because the number of people combined with unfortunately timed rain caused me to flee inside to "watch" the broad cast of it. I have every faith that if it weren't raining that year I would have been so completely blown away I would have to try to make ours seem as good.
So, is there any negative about the Steamboat fireworks? Well, yes. The music they insist on choreographing the fireworks to. Sure, it's a country radio station, and yes, country music artists will never be in short supply of blindly patriotic (not that there is any other kind) songs, but there is a reason Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture is so freaking great! That song is build for explosions (Michael Bay, please never use it in a movie. It would make me cry). Or Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries! That would be an amazing piece to bring together with fireworks!
Still, in a town that has fireworks every week for no apparent reason, this year's Independence Day pyrotechnics went above and beyond what we could have expected!
Bum buh-buh bum bum, Bum buh-buh bum bum, Bum buh-buh bum bum, Bum bum bum bum!
(That is, obviously, Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, hehehe)
XOXO... "Jamie Want Big Boom" (Jamie Hyneman, Mythbusters)
As you can imagine, I spent the day with my own special brand of dysfunctional family :) (is there any other kind?). We watched the parade through downtown Steamboat Springs, CO, and since there was a gentle breeze and no humidity to speak of, it was a rather bearable temperature. Promptly following was lunch at Sweetwater Grill (very tasty but don't go with more than 10 people otherwise they seem to get frazzled and forget peoples entrees) followed by a jaunt to Pearl Lake for a quick dip. Then drinks and fun at a friends house, dinner at Rex's, gelato at Ciao Gelato. The day culminated in fireworks that would make Michael Bay very very proud.
Steamboat had the biggest fireworks display in the state of Colorado this year, and dominated the scene for the surrounding states, too. Sitting on a porch, watching the sky and my friends and family's faces light up as if they were in the daylight was nothing short of resplendent. Even with all the drama, all the tourists, all the small and large annoyances, I will always be transfixed by a stellar fireworks display. Fifteen minutes of pyrotechnics that felt like one enormous finale, I was captivated by this years explosions. The sound ricocheted off the mountains, rolling around our valley like thunder.
It was perfect.
I have seen fireworks in 2 cities that should out shine ours, Boston & Chicago. Both had such huge numbers of people that it was miserable to find a decent view. Chicago's fireworks were, well, pathetic. You know the fireworks that people sometimes smuggle from Wyoming into Colorado. The ones that are great compared to the dinky little ground based ones but are nothing compared to real fireworks? Well, those are the fireworks I saw in Chicago. Sorry, Windy City, but that was one "eh" display. Boston, you had an amazing display. That I watched on TV because the number of people combined with unfortunately timed rain caused me to flee inside to "watch" the broad cast of it. I have every faith that if it weren't raining that year I would have been so completely blown away I would have to try to make ours seem as good.
So, is there any negative about the Steamboat fireworks? Well, yes. The music they insist on choreographing the fireworks to. Sure, it's a country radio station, and yes, country music artists will never be in short supply of blindly patriotic (not that there is any other kind) songs, but there is a reason Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture is so freaking great! That song is build for explosions (Michael Bay, please never use it in a movie. It would make me cry). Or Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries! That would be an amazing piece to bring together with fireworks!
Still, in a town that has fireworks every week for no apparent reason, this year's Independence Day pyrotechnics went above and beyond what we could have expected!
Bum buh-buh bum bum, Bum buh-buh bum bum, Bum buh-buh bum bum, Bum bum bum bum!
(That is, obviously, Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, hehehe)
XOXO... "Jamie Want Big Boom" (Jamie Hyneman, Mythbusters)
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