4th of July

You probably notice that this post is a few days after our official 4^th of July holiday.  Here’s why.  This year, July 4^th fell on a Sunday, which posed a number of dilemmas.  Most towns and cities celebrate with fireworks and perhaps a parade.  That normally happens on the exact date.  For religious based areas, like most of Utah, Sunday is not the appropriate day for the festivities.  So that leaves the natural choice of Saturday, the day before.  Here in Cedar City, for whatever reason, they chose Monday to have the parade in the morning and the city sponsored fireworks on Monday night.  Because of the ongoing drought, individual fireworks were discouraged.  Instead, there were designated spots around town where people could go and shoot off whatever they wished, to keep the mayhem somewhat contained.  One of these places was just down the street from me!  I do not know exactly what they were doing over there, but it was pretty loud.

I did go to last year’s parade, which happened in spite of the COVID panic.  Crowds were packed along the street, and the parade theme was” The Spirit of ‘76”.  I thought it was a very nice event.

This year, the same theme was repeated.  In addition to floats following the theme of the parade, there were floats sponsored by different businesses and non-profit organizations, a military color guard, a dancing group, various pageant queens and their courts all on horseback, antique cars, and several fire trucks bringing up the rear.  There were several pairs of children that followed the horses to scoop the poop off of the street.  I wonder how much they got paid?!!!

The big major difference this year was the throwing of candy, freezer pops, Frisbees and other goodies into the crowds of children that lined the parade route.  What a panic that caused!  It reminded me of Mardi Gras.  That was not done last year, probably because they wanted to discourage the spreading of the virus.  Here in Utah, we have the youngest average age population of any of the states.  Below are some photos of the very patriotic fun that was had by all.

What I found particularly amusing was our county sheriff on horseback along with his sidekick on a horse painted like the American flag.  After the parade, they rode up and down the street so that people could pet the horses. 

Last night, I found a good spot to photograph the fireworks display, which was done at our airport.  I was a bit far away, and on top of a big hill.  Apparently, a lot of people thought it was a good spot, too, as there were numerous families with lots of children there.  Below are a few of my best shots.

Hope those of you in the US had a fun and relaxing weekend!