Wonderful story Kathy! This year, we were treated to a wonderful show, right in our back yard. I love the small town where I now live - we are miles away from any big fireworks show. The neighbors, our landlords, had their six kids and 30 grandkids over this weekend. The landlords own 30 or
40 acres of land all around here - including a big meadow, a huge barn where they have set up a raquetball court. All the land sits along a slope, and our house is next door and above theirs. A large creek runs along the land, past our house and theirs and along the meadow. They had a huge party in the meadow, which is about 200 feet away from our house, and down the hill a bit. The neighbors on the other side of the landlords bought fireworks aplenty from the local Indian Reservation. So did Ward and Carol. They do every year and then have competing shows. We can see the whole thing from our deck, with Mt. Si as a backdrop (with all those kids, do you think the adults can wait til it's dark to start??) It was amazing. See, being from Oregon, we aren't used to the kind of fireworks they can buy off the street here, not to mention the ones they can get at Indian Reservations. Wow. We went down to visit the big ole party before they started the fireworks, and they had a huge campfire and about 50 people all sitting in the meadow next to the creek.I was so happy to have been able to stay home for the 4th of July - when we lived in Portland we spent almost every 4th fighting traffic and people to find a place in one of the four or five huge firework shows. Here we have our house, with it's indoor bathroom, no traffic, neighbors to chat with, food, quiet (except for the fireworks of course, complete with homemade fireworks that I am sure are really dangerous) and a wonderful show.