Happy Fourth of July, everyone! Well we are definitely feeling the patriotic vibe here in Juneau. During the long twilight on July 3rd we walked around town and it seemed like everyone was decked out in red, white, and blue. (It also seemed like everyone was inebriated and shooting off bottle rockets, which was slightly scary.) The fireworks show started right at midnight and our new friends from the ferry had invited us to a rooftop party to watch the fireworks. It was hard not to catch some of the holiday enthusiasm, especially with some drunk guy behind us excitedly shouting “BOOOOooom! BOOOM!” as each colorful explosion lit up the night sky.
Despite the late night on the third, we set our alarms so we’d be up bright and early for the Juneau parade on the fourth. We got there a few minutes early and were slightly puzzled as to why all the little kids were carrying enormous empty shopping bags. Kevin wondered, “Are these kids just overly optimistic, or do they really give out that much candy here?” Fifteen minutes later, we had our answer: they really do give out that much candy here. It was like Halloween times ten – people in the parade were passing out handfuls of Snickers, Reese’s, Tootsie Pops….the Girl Scouts were actually handing out entire boxes of Girl Scout Cookies! I’ve never seen anything like it. If you have young children (or if you just really like getting free candy) and have a chance to be in Juneau on the Fourth, it’ll be a parade you’ll never forget. No wonder Juneau’s historic district was packed with locals and tourists alike.
We chose a good vantage point closer to the parade’s beginning (and its end – it loops around and leaves the way it came). The parade entries and floats were pretty diverse:
Whimsical whale tales on one float
Several floats celebrated the local Native American culture
The giants were hard to ignore
The marching band’s elderly majorette was one of the most enthusiastic participants
This entry was just called “Chicks with Chairs”. Uh…okay.
I hope everyone back home had a wonderful Independence Day!
fun! I would def go there for the 4th!
ReplyDeleteChicks with chairs, huh? Weird. You really lucked out with meeting that couple on the ferry. Too bad you didn't see any whales on your crossing. Or maybe they were there but you were too busy drinking your margaritas with glacier ice.
ReplyDeleteI saw your comments on Island Babble - I actually figured out the timing on when to hit the photo button to capture the explosions and was quite proud of myself. I still can't believe how clear your photos are of landscape that's rather hard to capture on film - good stuff!
We did actually see a few whale spouts while we were on the ferry, but they were so far off and not doing anything so I didn't take any photos and forgot to mention it in the blogs. They seem a lot less active up here compared to what we've seen in warmer waters.
DeleteI have to give all the credit for our photos to Kevin. Even for the ones I take, since he's the one who did the research before buying the camera. We're really happy with it -- it's a Sony Cybershot DSC-HX9V. And any of the really, really good photos on here were probably taken by Kevin. :)