Bigfork is a great little town, and every year they have a great Independence Day parade. We have our routine to make sure we get a seat right in the action. That involves walking up the big hill (which I swear gets longer and steeper every year) and across the highway and then into town. We have our favorite spot on the wall in front of the Bigfork Inn. From there we can look West and see the parade coming in from the highway and down the long hill. Looking East we look up the hill and toward the turn onto the main street. People start gathering at about 11:00, and by the time the parade begins at noon the street is crowded with a sea of people wearing red, white and blue. I’ve made a mosaic of pictures from the day – let’s see if I can make it work here:
How about that! It worked! The first row shows the street at 11:00, and at 11:15, and a group waiting on the balcony enjoying their drinks. The second row has all of us, waiting for the action to begin, the sheriffs on their bikes (back in the day it would have been horses, but welcome to the 21st century) and the street at noon with the parade underway. Last row shows the local pipe band strutting their stuff, Mom and I waiting for our boat ride home and finally our 4th of July fish taco dinner.
It was a perfect hot sunny day, which ended with a great display of fireworks. I have a snazzy new camera, and it takes movies. Here’s about a minute and a half of the fireworks:
Folks around here are really big on fireworks, though things are a little quieter than in some previous years. As it was the displays began at about 8:00, with the really big stuff getting going once it got dark, sometime after 10:00. By 11:00 most of the flashing and banging was over.
