Husband and I spent the evening yesterday with members of his family on a pretty lake, celebrating family and the 4th of July, our nation’s birthday.
We enjoyed lots of good food while we waited for the sky to get dark and the fireworks to start. Unfortunately a pretty heavy thunderstorm blew through about the time we were going to start eating. We ran for the house.
That wasn’t the kind of dark sky we had hoped for. But lucky for us after the rain the sky cleared and the fireworks started on time.
We sat in lawn chairs on the shore and enjoyed the show. It reminded me so much of my childhood when my family would take our little 35 horsepower ski boat out on the water and watch the fireworks.
Lots of similar memories were made last night.
And though I did worry about my dog back at home, closed into a bedroom with the TV on loud, I couldn’t begrudge all the people out last night on a warm summer night watching the lights explode overhead. Later in the week when folks in the neighborhood are still setting them off I’ll be more grumpy.
I hope you all have the kind of 4th that best fits your family. And I hope this great American experiment lasts for centuries more.
Change Is Hard 
July 4, 2026 at 12:37 pm
Gorgeous images, Dawn! Happy 4th to you and yours!
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July 4, 2026 at 12:50 pm
Sitting in a lawn chair, using my phone….it was hard to time it right because at night the camera takes 3 seconds (I think seconds, might be some other measure of time) to shoot so I’d try to hit the shutter as I saw the canister shoot up into the sky but sometimes (often) that was too early. Still I’m happy and it was fun.
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July 4, 2026 at 12:41 pm
Wow! Those are beautiful photos, Dawn. They remind me of one Northport 4th when the fireworks were set off against storm clouds. Very dramatic! I grew up watching fireworks over otherwise quiet cornfields as my sisters and I sat on the roof of our car and stuffed ourselves with popcorn and Kool-aid from home.
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July 4, 2026 at 12:52 pm
We waited through a thunderstorm before the fireworks, which reminded me of a time my husband and I waited in a rainstorm in a park in Maine to see the fireworks which were then shot up into a cloud filled sky and all we saw were colored clouds…which was interesting and certainly made for memories.
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July 4, 2026 at 12:41 pm
We’re in a hotel in Anaheim, CA for the weekend, and we watched the Disneyland fireworks from our room’s window last night. We should see them again tonight.
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July 4, 2026 at 12:57 pm
Do they shoot those off every night? I bet they are pretty. Are you going to visit Disneyland? Or wait. Disney world?
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July 4, 2026 at 1:52 pm
Disneyland in California – the World is in Florida. I think they shoot them off every night for a period of time, but I don’t remember how long. It’s been a lot of years since I lived down here. We’re here so Kat can spend a couple of days with her best friend of 41 years, and then we’re off to Ensenada for a week.
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July 4, 2026 at 1:29 pm
These were taken with your phone?! They sure did turn out great. All the news last night was showing how they are setting up our fireworks for tonight. Too darn hot to be out there!
How did Penny do by herself? Smart to have the TV turned up loud to block out the fireworks.
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July 4, 2026 at 2:07 pm
I think Pen had a rough evening. The thunderstorm would have freaked her out and we weren’t here. Throw rugs in the bedroom were in a heap when I got home and she was very needy. Took a long time to get her to settle. Then we got another thunderstorm about 3 a.m. this morning and it’s been downhill since then. Sigh. I promised her I wouldn’t leave her tonight.
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