A professional Fourth of July

Golly, has it been a week already since the Fourth of July? I meant to write this at that time.

It seems like each Fourth of July we've been in Sacramento, we've tried something different as far as the fireworks celebration goes. We've tried watching the neighbors' fireworks displays, our kids firing off their purchases, the show at Raley Field, and one year we watched the display at Del Campo high school.

This year the Del Campo display was called off and moved to the La Sierra community Center, less than a mile from our house. It was free, easy to drive to, and had plenty of parking. We found a nice grassy spot to set up our chairs and listen to the Sacramento Symphony Band while waiting for it to get dark enough for the fireworks. It was hot enough that Carolyn sprang for sno-cones for the group.

The display was well-done and without any "voice-over" or annoying music to distract from all the oohs and aahs. Tim and Jake started "claiming" various starbursts as "theirs" using some color or bursting characteristics. The explosions were so close that we had a little cool ash drift on us and some of the casings fell close to our chairs. I think this was the best year ever.