Independance Day 2015

Hello America!

Waiting for a parade to begin is torture!  I learned my lesson and instead of being at the end of a very long parade, next year, we will pick a spot near the beginning.

The Laporte parade was scheduled to begin at 10AM.

While we waited for the parade to reach us, a couple of antique war planes flew overhead.

Then we waited.

And waited some more.

Finally, after we all turned ancient, we all heard the rustling of the crowd to get on there feet.   We all stood and covered our hearts, in a show of respect as the flag went by.  Woooohooo, the parade has started!!!!

I think this is the first time I have ever watched a parade without my family being a part of it.

It's kind of nice to just kick back and be a spectator.

 

:-)

Waving to folks, and watching for people tossing candy was the game plan.

The trouble was, by the time they reached us, at the end, they were all out of candy! :-(

As long as I am pointing out flaws, it may be a good idea to put a few spacer floats in between the sirens and the marching band next time.  I think the marching band played well, but it was hard to tell with the sirens making us deaf.  :-/

Okay, rant is over.  The really nice thing about parades is how they bring the community together.

I enjoy seeing the proud farmers showing the tractors.

The old falling apart tractor is my favorite one of all!  The wheels turn all crooked and it just cracks me up!

Not to mention the sound of old tractors chugging along; poppppffft, popppy, poppity, pop!

 

Laporte certainly didn't have a shortage of tractors.

The marching bands and tractors are my two favorite parade attractions.

 

The day went by quickly, and that evening we went to Valparaiso to watch the fireworks.  Troy danced around to the music from the live band.

The weather was great, and the turn-out of spectators was plentiful.

Waiting for the fireworks to begin wasn't as torturous as waiting for the parade, thanks to the music.

We played ring toss with glow-in-the-dark necklaces and water bottles until the kiddies got wore out. 

BOOM!

The fireworks display was awesome!  Gold bursts with pink heart shapes, and swirly glowing rays of fire, were my two favorites.

Oh, the display was correlated with the music too!

 A very patriotic display!

Happy 4th Everyone!  Can you believe it's already come and gone?  The celebrations will continue here for a few more weeks.  Yay-- more fireworks!  ;-)