Fourth of July weekend

The 4th of July weekend is always a favorite here in Park City.  Friends come to town.  Music and parties are everywhere.  The small town parade is always entertaining.  The fireworks.  You just can't get away from all the fun.

To start the weekend off, my cousin Sara came to visit from Raleigh, NC.  She's been here twice before, once in the summer and one during the Sundance Film Festival in winter.  My dad has one brother, Sam, who has two daughters, Sara being the older of the two. Here's Sara with Julie at the parade.

Now, even though I have cameras everywhere and there were events going almost non-stop, I seem to have only captured the parade.  We kept having dinners out on our deck, enjoying the glorious company.   I ran a 5k on the morning of the 4th and finished side-by-side with Jim Covaleski, who has dropped 30 pounds this year and is running like a fiend!  We went to a big party at the Benson's.  All this and not a shot, but as always, I at least drag a little camera to the parade.

I met Rob Schumacher at 5:30 in the morning to come put our chairs along the parade route and claim our space.  We  leave the cars and walk home. This is serious commitment.  Our group, roughly from left to right includes: Greg, Miriam, Sara, Julie, Jim, Kathy, Bill, Loris, Lisa, Theresa, Rob, Ron and Carol.  Scattered in are a few friends who wandered by.



Every parade, whether big city or small town has to have marching bands.  We only had one this year, but they were quite good.

Let's start into the best stuff.  This guy had an electrically propelled three-wheeler.  It flexed quite a bit, which allowed it to turn on a dime.  Everyone instantly wanted one.  If they were selling them there, they would have cleaned up.

This was definitely the best float.  It was sponsored by Canyons Resort and starred a number of very experienced ski jumpers.

It turns out the float was basically a trampoline on wheels.  These guys were going along the parade route doing all sorts of flips and twists.

Both on skis and snowboards.  I never heard if they won first prize, but if they didn't it was clearly fixed.  This was new and awesome!

Then there were some things that weren't so good.  First, we have Miss Summit County and her escorts.  This is from the county that was "least obese" in the entire U.S..  Look closely and you can figure out what's wrong.

These girls represented some form of dance or aerobics group.  Whatever it was, I don't ever want to participate.

And the mega-loser for the parade.  Deer Valley is a multi-multi-million dollar resort.  They have been voted the number 1 ski resort in the US the last three years.  And this is their float?  What a piece of crap!  This was clearly $15 and four man hours.  If this is all you are going to do, stay home and don't embarrass yourself.  This is just so unlike DV.

So let's end on a happier parade note.  Here is my always lovely neighbor and best friend Hannah.  She was dressed as a princess and was part of the Baby Nee Nee float.

I was actually all ready to take some wonderful fireworks pictures.  I had the camera, remote trigger, tripod and such all ready to go.  Then it rained.  Instead of watching from the top of the water tower, we caught the last third of the fireworks show and even that was from inside the car.  Maybe next year.

Sara is back in Raleigh and Julie and I are having a very peaceful night, highlighted by the lack of gluttony and alcohol.  Whew!