Pictures of the 106th Fourth of July Parade in Huntington Beach

Since it's the biggest parade this side of the Mississippi, it's a bit hard to pick representative pictures. So, here are a handful of my favorites, gained from walking down the parade route.

Dancing horses! I was finally at a point to get to see them dance, too.

I love the fact that there is always someone from Anjo, our sister city in Japan, in the parade. I wonder if Huntington Beach sends representatives to any festival in Anjo?

A time-honored tradition. At least it's in good cause!

Seating is at a premium for the parade. Many people stake out their sites ahead of time, often very thoroughly (lots of CAUTION tape, plus signs). Others make use of their lawns and any other available space they may have.

Decorated bikes are a must.

Does this really need a caption?

Before the Parade: Houses

I  didn't get to spend my usual few days leisurely examining the houses before the parade. This time, it was all right before the parade started and seen around hoards of people similarly watching the crowds and the houses.

I love the pale-skinned doll sunbathing on this roof. There was another one off to the side, but since it wasn't in a chair, it really looked rather like a corpse.

 

And these people planted for the occasion. How cool is that? They won one of the decorating awards, but I wasn't close enough to see which one.

And this one: Clever use of materials. Those are old blue-jeans being the blue, and I think, old sheets for the red and white. Love it!

This garden is a long-time favorite of mine, and the Fourth of July decorations did not disappoint.

Fireworks

As with last year, my sister and I walked to the beach to see the show.

It really was spectacular; this was the Centennial Celebration, so they'd decided on a full 25 minutes of show, out over the ocean with patriotic and surfer-themed songs playing in the background (Oh, and "Dixieland." I'm not quite sure how that fit).

We had a great time, first watching the band and then settling down on the beach for the show, and then walking home by an alternate route, since we'd spend the day debating which of two routes was shortest (mine, by a hair).

It wasn't all that alternate, though--we were still shuffling in the crowds for several blocks and watching in amazement as a few hundred cyclists zig-zagged through the streets without getting hit by the hundreds of cars also trying to use the street.

The next day, everyone at church got to talk about how spectacular the display had been, and how we'd never seen so many fireworks in the air at once as hit the air in the finale (Well, all but one person. She said, somewhat apologetically, that she'd seen more at New Year's in Sidney).

Happy Fourth of July!

Fireworks

It was a lovely Fourth of July.

I got up in time to go see the parade, though I did miss the first few floats.

HB is enormously fond of its parade; people start staking out their places as soon as they are allowed, using tape, chalk, and signs to mark their boundaries. Some folk bring big trucks with bleachers. All in all, it is quite a festive event and worth going to just for the people watching.

I'm not, myself, quite patient enough to sit through the two hundred and some floats; instead, I walk down the line taking pictures as I go. A lot of other people have the same idea, so what with the crowds and stopping to take pictures, it takes a good couple of hours to reach the pier.

There's a street market there this weekend, a much more blatantly commercial market than the usual one. Our usual market is full of handmade items and farm-fresh fruits, giving it an air of authenticity and innocence. The Fourth of July market, on the other hand, is replete with plastic, chock full of chemicals, free samples, and ads.

Actually, the free samples were quite disappointing this year. Starbucks was good and had quite a line waiting for their little cups of mint mocha. Then there was the usual energy drink, the same one, I think, that shows up every year. And there were folk from Sobe handing out something called "Life Water." It has ginseng (so the label says), bright orange food coloring, lots of sugar, and no apparent flavor beyond "Flat, sweet, and vaguely chemical." It was cold and free and the day was hot, and I still couldn't finish it; judging by the number of partly full bottles I saw in the trash cants (and, alas, left on the street), I wasn't the only one with that opinion.

In any case, the real fun is people watching, and there are scads of people to watch--see the pictures in previous posts, for example.

I got home in time for a late lunch, wrestled for a while with the Mage Trio aka the Troublesome Trio and enjoyed a lovely barbeque with the family.

Then came time for the real event of the day; fireworks! My sisters and I walked down to the pier to join hundreds of others waiting for the city show. We thought it was crowded when we got there, but by the time the show actually started, we knew what crowded really meant. There wasn't a bit of space left.

Well, not by American standards, anyway. As the one who's been in Mexico pointed out, there was still some space between people.


HB puts on a spectacular show, so it's no wonder the crowds come. I filled up my card before the grand finale, but the pictures should give some idea.

It's the first time I've taken pictures during a firworks show, and I found watching on-screen and real time simultaneously fascinating; the little frozen pictures on the camera catch moments that I don't notice while the fireworks are in full blaze and burst.



After the half hour show finished, we joined the slow but steady shuffle off the beach and down the road, gloating over our good fortune in living within walking distance. Foot traffic might have been moving slowly, but cars were not moving at all--not for many, many blocks.

It was a good night for a walk, too.

A Busy Day at the Beach

No. You don't own your likeness. They do. Forever, in case you were wondering.

But it's all ok. After all, if you don't like the idea, you can just stay away from the beach and avoid downtown HB.

These, I think, speak for themselves.