A St. Louis 4th!

I finally talked David into going downtown to celebrate 4th of July and watch the fireworks under the Arch this year.  Supposedly, between 300,000 and 500,000 people attend this each year--whaa???  When we told people we were going to brave the crowds this year, many gave us wary looks.  There are like 10 other fireworks celebrations around the St. Louis area, including a small one just a couple of miles away from our house.  But I really wanted to do the "big" one at least once!  And this year the weather was great--highs were just in the 80's yesterday.  I figured it was the perfect year to do it.

We went downtown around 5 and figured we would get dinner from some of the food vendors that were set up around the arch.  We were able to get food for dinner before the lines got insanely long--David went back later to try to get us some funnel cakes, but heard the wait was over an hour!  But then we did have a long while to sit on the lawn waiting for it to get dark and the fireworks to begin.

 So we took some photos. :)  Next year we will bring a frisbee and other stuff to keep Sarah (and ourselves) entertained during the wait. The advantage to arriving early is we did find a nice spot sitting on a hill to watch the show from (later, ALL the green space you see around us was filled up with people).

 And, please ignore David's expression in these photos.  Those of you in the Dean family know that the Dean boys have made a life-long commitment to being wierd in photos.  He was having a good time and does indeed like his family, I promise!!

 Another thing adding to our fun on the 4th--our Chinese friend Yang Fan (English name--Peter) was with us!  He just got a job teaching 2nd grade at a Mandarin language immersion Elementary school here in St. Louis and will be living with our family for a while.  We are so excited to have him!  He has been in the States for 2.5 years getting his M. Ed. at Michigan State.  He said the crowds he saw downtown last night were more people than he had seen in whole time in the U.S. up to that point combined. :)

While we waited, they did have a concert going on.  Trace Adkins.  I like a couple of his songs; David--not so much.  We probably would have enjoyed the wait more if there was a concert of someone we actually enjoyed.  Personally, I think I prefer a live orchestra playing patriotic music even to a pop concert.

In any case, once the fireworks began, they were definitely amazing!!  I wish I had gotten some photos of the  crowds (insane!) and the fireworks show.  But you can go here: Fair St. Louis photos to see more pictures of those things!

We also left a little before the end of the show so we could get on the road before the traffic became unbearable.  We got home without getting stuck in the crowds, but both David and I said it really was kind of a bummer we didn't just sit and enjoy the whole thing--after all, the part we missed was the finale!  I did see it on video here this morning: STL fireworks video

Anyway, it was a fun time and we were glad we did it.  The crowds were seriously, seriously insane though.  I think we will try it again in the future, coming early again and then trying to park someplace where we can hopefully stay till the very end and still not get stuck in traffic for hours afterward!