Burn Baby Burn!
31 miles, big pancake breakfast after 14. Gotta love riding with my folks; it's extra cool that my dad can do rides like that despite ongoing cancer treatment.
We just got back from the annual Coast Guard Festival fireworks display in Grand Haven. It's a really good show; I don't think I've ever seen such good coordination between the music (from the inimitable Musical Fountain) and the fireworks themselves, and the colors they create are really intense. It's a great show - generally better than the area Independance Day shows - and the attendance is commensurate. Arriving at 6:30 in the evening, we managed to find a spot to sit that was maybe 10 square feet, and had been a sort of unofficial walkway. The rest of the hill, even under trees, was solid blankets and bodies. And, of course, Carny food. What's fireworks without corn dogs and elephant ears?
This year, though, we were also treated to The Burning of Dewey Hill - falling embers from the display ignited multiple blazes on Dewey Hill, which is across the Grand River from the city and the huge crowds of people eating Fat Balls and ogling each other. By the time the show in the sky was done, the hill was burning brightly in a dozen spots on the side we could see, and there was a rather ominous glow over the top that soon revealed more flames. Whole trees were practically exploding; we're 8-10 inches low on rain this year, and the pre-show dousing from the fire department didn't apparently do much.
The bright spot (har, har) of the fire was that people didn't surge away from the waterfront as they usually do, but instead watched area fire departments do their thing, so we had less trouble than usual getting out of the area and headed homewards. It was kind of hard to leave, though; a big, largely uncontrolled fire at night is really amazing to watch. When a tree would go up, you'd see a sort of whirlwind of fire and embers rise high above it, and you could see the whole blaze marching uphill. Too bad we didn't have a decent camera along...
We just got back from the annual Coast Guard Festival fireworks display in Grand Haven. It's a really good show; I don't think I've ever seen such good coordination between the music (from the inimitable Musical Fountain) and the fireworks themselves, and the colors they create are really intense. It's a great show - generally better than the area Independance Day shows - and the attendance is commensurate. Arriving at 6:30 in the evening, we managed to find a spot to sit that was maybe 10 square feet, and had been a sort of unofficial walkway. The rest of the hill, even under trees, was solid blankets and bodies. And, of course, Carny food. What's fireworks without corn dogs and elephant ears?
This year, though, we were also treated to The Burning of Dewey Hill - falling embers from the display ignited multiple blazes on Dewey Hill, which is across the Grand River from the city and the huge crowds of people eating Fat Balls and ogling each other. By the time the show in the sky was done, the hill was burning brightly in a dozen spots on the side we could see, and there was a rather ominous glow over the top that soon revealed more flames. Whole trees were practically exploding; we're 8-10 inches low on rain this year, and the pre-show dousing from the fire department didn't apparently do much.
The bright spot (har, har) of the fire was that people didn't surge away from the waterfront as they usually do, but instead watched area fire departments do their thing, so we had less trouble than usual getting out of the area and headed homewards. It was kind of hard to leave, though; a big, largely uncontrolled fire at night is really amazing to watch. When a tree would go up, you'd see a sort of whirlwind of fire and embers rise high above it, and you could see the whole blaze marching uphill. Too bad we didn't have a decent camera along...
posted by did at 11:50 PM
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