Whitewater fireworks

We plan on a low-key July 4th here at the house on Sunday, but last night we had a blast at the US White Water center here in Charlotte!
This place is alot of fun and every time we go, I feel like I've been transformed to another town, like Ashville or Ithaca because there are lots of folks in hiking gear, ty-die and facial hair galore. We couldn't get over how crowded it was for a fireworks event on Saturday evening instead of actual date of July 4th. (I tend to forget that we live next to a major city because York is so little.)

The reason we chose to come on Saturday night was to avoid the crowds. This was not my doing...crowds really don't bother me mainly because my parents where big "crowd avoiders" when I was a child. Of course I felt like I missed out on lots of fun, even though I really didn't.

I think its funny how I married someone who hates crowds as well. I always like to tell my kids about what it was like when I was little seeing fireworks.

Below is Schoellkopf Field, at Cornell University. Here is where I spent my July 4th. This was my favorite event growing up because the whole family would go early in the evening to get a good seat, we'd wait and wait and wait ..than the Ithaca firemen would come hose down the field and they'd put on this elaborate ground show and than the big "boomers" would start around 9 or so. The only catch to this wonderful childhood memory was the my father, mid-way through the end of the fireworks would whisper that we had to go to beat the crowds leaving the stadium. I"d always say " but we'll miss the finally!" and he would say" you can watch them from the car". So I'd sit, backwards going out of the parking lot in wondering what I may be missing not staying that final 5 minutes of the show. Needless to say, since we've had kids, I've never allowed Joey to leave any firework celebration early no matter how big the crowds where. I also usually end up driving on the way home....