I know my first Fourth of July back in America since 2001 was almost two weeks ago now, but I just got around to downloading the pictures and videos off my camera tonight.
Though I saw fireworks a couple of different times while I was in Germany, it had been quite a few years since I had celebrated The Fourth of July in proper Small Town America Style and I was really looking forward to spending my first Fourth back in the States with my niece and nephew.
It was a fairly typical Small Town Iowa Fourth of July Day: The weather was hot and humid by 10:00 am, but we toughed it out and went to see the parade anyway. The parade consisted of much candy-throwing by the participants of the parade and much candy-gathering by me my niece. The high school marching band played and the veterans from the American Legion did a Twenty One Gun Salute. There were also plenty of horses and Uncle Sam walked down the brick streets on stilts. There was a second parade a couple of hours later, but the heat drove our little party indoors until evening.
I was quite excited about attending one of the largest fireworks displays in this area of Iowa, but I had to work the night before the Fourth and the night of and as a result, I almost missed the fireworks display entirely. My sister called me around 7:30 that evening to remind me to bring a chair and woke me from a dead sleep. I didn’t want to wake up very badly and almost told my sister to go without me, but when I heard my niece in the background excitedly chattering about the fireworks I dragged myself out of bed.
The fireworks display was quite beautiful and I used the opportunity to practice my nighttime photography skills. I think my attempts at photographing the fireworks were pretty successful, don’t you? (P.S. There are more fireworks pics at Flickr and a little video on YouTube. Enjoy! 
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