Our Fourth of July!

Alaska is relatively new to the union, so our Fourth traditions are not the best. The fact that in Anchorage on the Fourth it never gets truly dark outside makes a fireworks display less than stellar. And our endless miles of forest make firecrackers a really, really stupid idea. So, what are we left with? A parade!

Unfortunately our parade is nothing special, but we have one. Matt and Kara have taken the tykes to see it a few times. As a youth, I vaguely recall joining the parade as a Girl Scout and when Kara was little we took her a few times, but I haven't attended for years. Or if I have, it wasn't a memorable event.

Mark and I decided to attend the parade with Matt and the children. Kara is 37 weeks pregnant (it's not a secret, but she has never mentioned it on the blog!) and she did not want to go and stand for an hour or more. We decided to park a few blocks from the parade route because we were going to check out the flowers on Town Square after the parade.

We parked. We walked. And walked. We saw some kites on the park strip. We walked some more to locate a decent spot to watch the parade from. We found one. We waited. The parade came by. We saw a few lame floats--there were no floats covered in tissue paper flowers. I like those! There was the usual marching bands, patriotic groups, dancing troupes, beauty queens in sports cars, the mayor in a sports car, some classic cars, and fire engines. The highlights of the parade were the bagpipers, a motorized car-size radio flyer wagon, a handful of clowns and an oddly dressed lady on stilts.

Jake found the parade too loud at times and Viva gave anyone who looked at her the Viva Glare, but for the most part they seemed to enjoy the parade.




Sadly, no candy was thrown from the floats. (I told you Alaskan parades are lame.) Nonetheless the children did score a few treasures. On the walk to the parade the children were each given a Mylar helium balloon advertising ACS (where opa works). During the parade someone gave Jake and Bentley each a small American Flag. Viva didn't seem to care that there wasn't one for her. After the parade the trio were gifted kaleidoscopes. Bentley gave his back. I asked him why he returned it; he didn't want it was what I got from him. Later he regretted giving it back, but it was too late. He wasn't too upset. Unlike his brother Jake, who I will discuss later.



After the parade we checked out the vendors on the Park Strip. There were a few fair type things to do. The children wanted to try the obstacle course fun house. The first time through Matt went with them to make sure that they could make it all the way through on their own. They wanted to go again, so we let them.


I wanted to purchase a candy apple for the twins to try, but the line was impossibly long. True Alaskans do not do lines. (This has been a problem when we travel. Mark and I have skipped more than one venue because of the absurd lines.)

When we were getting ready to the leave the Park Strip disaster struck. No we did not lose a child. I was in charge of the balloons and one of them slipped away from me. The balloon managed to detach from the ribbon it was tied to. It sailed off up into sky. Jake did not take its defection well. He started crying. He didn't stop for a long, long time.

Viva started crying, too. She wanted her father to carry her. She was tired of walking. He said no. She howled. She was loud. She kept it up for a good fifteen minutes. Then she found something better to do. Jake did not. He just kept on crying and crying and crying. Mark was somewhat sympathetic to Jake. (Did he lose a balloon as a child?) Matt and I were not. Get over it already.





We visited Town Square. Matt sat with Jake by the waterfall so his crying wouldn't disturb others who were at the square trying to commune with nature. Bentley and Viva ran around. Mark took lots and lots of photos of the flowers. They were gorgeous. Anchorage doesn't do a good job with parades, but they do a most excellent job with flowers. The city green house dresses the city up with thousands of fabulous flowers. I'll take flowers over parades.


We stopped by the bakery and purchased the children some cookies. We headed back to the car. We got home. Later in the evening we had a traditional Fourth BBQ with corn and watermelon.

Three final Fourth details: Summer is always busy with lots of outdoor activities, so it's hard to fit in any holiday crafts, but Kara did find a really cute wind sock made from crepe paper and the children had fun each making one. Kara and Viva also made red, white, and blue pudding pops. Jake and Viva enjoyed them, but our picky eater did not, of course, get near one. (The pudding pops were not only a new food (yuck!), but a cold one.) Grandma Vicki sent the kids a holiday package which included books, necklaces, and glow sticks.