Independence Day 2011

Sleepyheads

This evening, we went to the Barboursville fireworks display. As far as we can tell, it’s obviously world-renowned, as the license plates we saw indicate that people come from such exotic locations as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and even—gasp!—West Virginia, to see them. As we approached what Tom Tom assured us was the location of the fireworks, we paused to ask a nice man who was directing traffic if we were going the right way. He responded that yes, we were: that “back down at the bottom of the hill, you’ll have a good view by the baseball field.” Since baseball fields are famous for their proximity to awesome pyrotechnic displays, we continued on, assured that all was well.

As we continued down the hill, we could see hundreds upon hundreds of cars at the bottom. We expect that, in addition to the aforementioned tourists from around the world (or at least the northeastern quadrant of the United States), all 3,183 citizens of Barboursville were in attendance (including, of course, the Barboursville Fire Department). As we approached the bottom, we discovered that, inexplicably, there was considerable parking available near the amphitheater, where a very nice rock group was covering classic Americana such as God Bless the U.S.A. and Bad, Bad Leroy Brown. We couldn’t hear them very well, from behind the amphitheater, but it sounded like what they lacked in talent, they made up for in enthusiasm. B+ for effort.

As we walked to the lawn with our beach chairs, a couple sitting on lawn chairs in the back of a pickup truck informed us that the fireworks would be in the direction they were facing. We thanked them and set up our chairs facing that direction, only to turn them around just in time to see the show start. So much for that idea. Additionally, Leah had a minor reflux episode after too much junk food at Old Mawmaw’s house, so we spent about half an hour giving her gum, water, and finally animal crackers to help her get rid of the taste. Poor kid.

Finally, 10:00 rolled around. The fireworks began, with many single explosions in a row. (Apparently in Barboursville, they don’t like to set off multiple fireworks at a time.) This went on for a good 30 minutes or so, by which point a good number of adults were loudly mocking the show, a good number of older kids were loudly proclaiming their boredom while chasing each other around the field, a good number of vehicles were making their way back up the hill, and our little Drakelings were fast asleep in their chairs, completely oblivious to the booming explosions in the sky.

To be fair, the grand finale was really cool: they finally decided to do a bunch of fireworks at once, and did so four or five times. I then carried both of our sleeping kids back to the van, one on each shoulder, and made a second trip back for the remaining chairs that Anna wasn’t able to carry. We then made our way through the surprisingly not-too-bad traffic and got back to the hotel, with the results shown in the photo above. :-)

As for our vacation, it finally ends tomorrow. Happy Independence Day, everyone!