July 4th

What I miss most when I say good-bye to the scooter is being able to go places where you wouldn't normally go. First was the Giants Parade. Next? July 4th! Just thinking about not being able to attend these events w/o the headaches of owning a car gives me the shivers.

The three worst things about driving are all avoided by riding a scoot: 

1. Traffic 
2. Parking
3. Gas prices

Who wants to volunteer going into traffic? If it wasn't for a scooter, I wouldn't have found this! After looking up on the net where the best places are to view the fireworks, I picked one and rode straight there. On my way though, I found a bunch of traffic heading in a different direction. Not being in too much of a hurry, I followed the crowd only to see them make a circle b/c they couldn't find parking. 

Saw lots of people though. Not sure where they were going. Figured I'd just park and figure it out later. There were enough people that even parking a scooter wasn't so easy! Easy, but just not as easy as usual. I was trying to avoid boxing in a car parked parallel that already had a scooter either in front of it or behind it. Spent about a minute avoiding the handicapped zone. 

Wondering where people were going, I followed. They had disappeared and I didn't see any crowds - until I approached the dropoff and looked down the hill. 

50 people. Wait, no! 100 people. I stood there overlooking the ocean at one of the piers - not even sur where I was. I could see fireworks, but it was small and fairly far away. It was still early and fireworks wasn't really supposed to have started yet. 

Bang. Bang. Bang. 

The first few fly into the air to my right. The crowd follows, just realizing that they too were looking in the wrong area. I guess I wasn't the only newbie. As I follow the fireworks, trying to get closer, i realized there were tons more people than I thought. There were easily 1,000 people there. 

We were so close that babies were crying and we could see the sky filled with smoke at times. The fireworks were right over our heads! These photos were taken after I left the front line and walked back up the hill, hoping to avoid the huge throng of people leaving once the event was over. I stood at the top furthest from everyone else and still got this shot! 

For the majority of the show, the fireworks were almost overhead! I could see fireworks coming out of the boat!!! The spot was so good that I actually could see 3 areas of firworks at one time and was able to hear a fourth one in the distance.

The last time I saw 3 locations simultaneously was when my grandmother was in the hospital and her corner patient room on the top level overlooked the Bay. Ever since then, I wanted to see it again. 15 or so years later, here I was - except much closer. 

Mission accomplished.