July 4th Events

It's time again to celebrate the birth of the U.S. and the quirkiness of Park City.  The Fourth of July!

After six weeks without so much as a drop of rain, the morning starts with heavy rain and dense clouds. While we desperately needed the rain, the timing wasn't appreciated. It did manage to stop about 30 minutes before the 5K run.

Since my knee doc told me to stop running, I have mostly obeyed.  The only runs I have done since September of last year are a couple of 3-milers with Julie.  Not exactly a robust training plan. Somehow I managed to run it in 24:17, which is right around 7:50 miles.  I was happily surprised.

Julie ran the course with Sally and Hannah ran it with Monty.  Hannah had some stomach issues that slowed her down, but she still finished under 25 minutes.

Every year the parade is a mix of interesting, well thought out floats and some cars and vans that have 10 minutes worth of decorations heaved on.  The parade invariably starts late goes on for about an hour and a half.

In a town full of Olympians, it is easy to find one to be the grand marshal of the parade.  This year it was Ted Ligety, who had a tremendous ski racing year.

If you could give an award to a single person, instead of a float or a group, it would have to go to this woman who was dancing along with a New Orleans style band.  She was pretty, dressed well, and danced with an energy that made me wonder what she was like way back at the beginning of the parade.

If you have a house along the parade route, all it takes is an email invite and you become party central.  These folks were right across the street from us.

I couldn't even get all of our group in one shot.  I think I took down about 15 chairs in the morning and more arrived later.

We had Benson's, Covaleski's, Herr's, Luaghton's, Jester's, Pierce's, Lutzker's, and probably some I am forgetting.

Allison and Stephen Pierce had a 5 gallon bucket full of water and were using it to reload a super-soaker water gun.  Apparently the bitter, angry, spoilsport Park City Police decided that they must be terrorists and emptied the bucket.

After dumping their water, Stephen got a lengthy lecture.

I love the little dog out in front dressed as a micro reindeer.  Tough sled to pull.

Many of you may have shopped online from Backcountry.com.  They are a huge outdoor retailer. Kind of like REI, but all online.  Their headquarters is here in Park City.  I give them credit for pulling a skier on the pavement.  I wonder if one pair of skis made it the whole way.  Notice their goat logo on the door of the car.

Well, they brought quite a few goats to match the logo. This was one of the larger ones.  I wonder if they keep their own logoed herd.

I almost captured a serious "fail".  The karate school was demonstrating nunchucks, spinning them rapidly.  One guy wanted to sneak through and nearly caught a stick to the head from both sides. Stupid is as stupid does.

I spend some time taking photos thinking about perspective.  Things in the distance appear smaller.

However this was a trick.  The girls in the distance actually were quite a bit smaller.

Nice push-me, pull-you van.

Sally and Monty, with Hannah standing behind. Notice her 2nd place ribbon from the 5K run.  No, I didn't get a ribbon.  All I got was a crappy t-shirt that instantly went in the donation box.

The group I have been rowing with is called the Park City Rowing Academy.  They are focused on teaching teenagers to row and they never mix the skilled youngsters with us struggling adults.  For their float, they were sweeping an 8 in the air.

Sally, Julie and Hannah, all looking happy and a lot more refreshed than they did when they crossed the line for the 5K a few hours earlier.

My gorgeous wife and I.  Thanks for the photo Sally!

I didn't take any more pictures during the day.  We went to the Benson's  great barbecue and although I had my camera all set up, I blew off the fireworks, preferring more eating and drinking to hiking in the dark.