Sunday, July 6, 2008

Chasing Fireworks

We spent a rather mellow 4th of July at home, with no real plans, and no real schedule...which was rather nice for a change.

For the evening, we thought it would be fun to take the kids out to see fireworks. We wanted something mellow, convenient and kid-friendly (meaning, not too many people). Perhaps this is too much to ask on the 4th of July. We thought not, so we consulted Signonsandiego.com and looked at our options:

Downtown San Diego at the Embarcadero (not mellow, not that kid-friendly, crappy parking)
Coronado (too far, and by the time we get there we will have spent $20 in gas consumption)
La Jolla Cove (um, parking will be even crappier than downtown)
Del Mar Fairgrounds (too crowded, not mellow, no thanks)

So imagine our surprise when we found a nice little, mellow park in RB called Webb Park where it was advertised "Fireworks after sunset."

Sounded cool, uncrowded and totally in line with our informal list of requirements.

So we got there at 8:30 anticipating fireworks to shoot off at 9:00 and layed down our blanket and opened up our bottle of wine.

People were just arriving. Red flag #1. I should have remembered that people camp out for hours for good fireworks shows.

We also noticed that the park was just east of the 15 highway. Red flag #2. Now why would they have fireworks next to a highway? Where would they shoot the fireworks from so close to the 15? Didn't add up.

Then we naturally noticed that there were no pyrotechnics set up anywhere close to the park. Red flag #3.

So we waited. And waited.

And all of a sudden around 9:05 we heard boom! noises just east of us. And we saw the top of the fireworks canopies just over the trees that were blocking our sight.

"Fireworks after sunset" the website advertised...but not at this location apparently. Gyeeeesh.

So, determined for Hannah and Luke to enjoy fireworks, we jumped in the car and attempted to find the source. And we drove through the annals of RB until we found them, about 2 1/2 miles from where we were parked originally.

Because we didn't want to park, walk and miss anything, we rolled down all the windows and sunroof and stopped the car in the street at a stoplight. (there were no cars on the road of course).

And Hannah and Luke were able to see the last of the fireworks from our car. At least we were able to catch the finale.



1 comment:

just jamie said...

Awww, bummer.

We did our first fireworks show with the kids this year (at Legoland). I dreaded what I thought would be a horrendous, traffic-induced exit and was happily relieved when we were home 15 minutes after the finale. Might I recommend...?