July 4th in Park City

Today we got to attend our first Park City July 4th celebration. For such a small town, it is quite a big deal. From talking to out builder we learned that there are nice rewards for the early bird. We drove down around 7:00 this morning and put two chairs out on Main Street, staking out our space. We (including Jasper the dog) went to the city park to enjoy the big pancake breakfast. We walked two miles home, leaving the car. Around 9:45, we walked back down to our seats and enjoyed a wonderful view on the shady side of the street. The weather was low 70s and low humidity. Awesome!

As you can see, the crowd got pretty heavy. The parade route went a mile and a half or so and people were lined up along the streets and balconies of businesses.


We felt pretty outclassed by the guys who brought out a couch and two easy chairs. One of the clowns found it a nice place to rest.


We started the event with a flyover of 4 F16 fighters


The police cleared the parade route by doing nice loops and twists on their brand new shiny Harley's. These were very nice!


The traditional firetruck made it a bit more interesting by occasionally firing water from it's water cannon.


Since Park City is a sports town, a lot of the floats seem to have a sports trend. The local TV station had a nice skier hood ornament.


While another group decided a real skier would be more appropriate. Yes, those are real skis dragging down the asphalt.


We had two Olympic gold medalists: Ted Ligety and Stephanie Victor. She is a double amputee and won in the Special Olympics this year. She can easily out-ski almost anyone I have ever met.


If you didn't win a gold you had to ride on another float. How many towns of 7,000 people can put 10 Olympians from one winter games on a float?


And of course most 4th of July parades would not be complete without representation from the local Luge club.


Guess you can't have sports without some injuries. This was a ski patrol group from The Canyons.


But the injuries must have gotten worse. There was a pair of two horse-drawn hearse. Both were extremely nice, so if you gotta go....



Leaving the sports theme, we see some of the more normal parade participants. This horse drawn wagon had a team of horses that looked like it put the Budweiser teams to shame. They were beautiful and HUGE.


The normal Park City transportation is our free shuttle in the form of a historic trolley. This year they started running it on Biodiesel.


One of my favorites, the belly dancers.


The Scottish marching band.


And then the collection of weird. An odd lady on an odd motorcycle.


A man who had nothing to do with the Scotts.


... and we close on the old guy riding the odd bike, with the live parrot on the front and the woman on the back. On such a nice day, what more can you ask for?