Fireworks on the Fourth!

We had a fun evening with Joe, Renee, and their kids today!  They came over for dinner (chicken legs/breasts and hot dogs, mac 'n cheese, green salad, corn salad, and fruit salad and a cream cheesy/cherries and berries dessert that Renee brought) and then we loaded into their mini-van to drive into Leesburg.  In all the years that Pern and I have lived here, we had yet to experience the big 4th of July bash that the Town of Leesburg puts on at Ida Lee Park every year.  

Wow.  Talk about a lot of people!!  We had to park WAAAAAYYY in the back of the park, but as we were getting out of the car we noticed a small number of people camped out on a nearby hill, away from the huge crowds and live music.  We asked if this was a good spot to see the fireworks and some folks told us yes, so we laid out the blankets and settled in to wait... away from the (literally) thousands of people, the Jimmy Buffett cover band, and the long lines waiting for funnel cakes and soft serve.  

It turned out to be the perfect spot!  The kids were able to run their little hearts out until it got dark, we had a perfect view, there weren't a whole lot of people breathing down our necks, and the fireworks were close enough to enjoy, but far away enough to not be super loud or have debris falling on us.  The only downside was the 45 minutes it took us to get home afterwards (we live about 5 minutes away).  Oh well... that's what you get for arriving late and being told to park WAAAAAYYY in the back of the park.  

Settling in to wait for dark.

The kids are always prepared for fireworks with ear-protection.

Pern wanted to take my 4th of July belly shot... Renee made me do the cheesy hands-making-a-heart-on-my-unborn-child pose.  So I made it extra-cheesy.

She thought that was funny.

Joe was too busy watching the kids run away to notice.

Fun with glow sticks!

Pern had fun, too.

And he loves me.

Wheeeee!

What follows are a bazillion pictures of fireworks.  I took more.  These were the best.  I read up on how to photograph fireworks before we left.  I turned the camera to "bulb" mode, where the shutter stays open as long as you press the shutter release down.  That way you can control the amount of exposure and can time the release of the shutter to the explosion of the fireworks.  It was pretty cool.  I thought these came out really well for my first attempt at fireworks!  Enjoy!

These two (above and below) are my favorites.

I also love the last one and the way you can see the trees in the shot.  It was a perfect evening for this little experiment:  the temperature was cool (low 70s), the air was clear, not muggy, and the wind moved the smoke away from us, so the pictures didn't get hazy as the show went on.  All in all, a good day!