A few pictures from the weekend's Independence Day Holiday...
(Canadians - just use your imagination to replace the Stars & Stripes with a Maple leaf so you can enjoy along with with rest of us)
My hometown did something new this year - a paper lantern launch before the fireworks on the shores of Lake Michigan. Lanterns could be purchased from local businesses for $10. Half of the proceeds went to the FourthFest Organizing committee, and half went to the Honor Flight Network (charities that focus on getting veterans to the war memorials in DC). Lanterns were launched in honor of a veteran - so we launched one each for my dad and both of Bambi's grandfathers.
We live less than a mile from Lake Michigan, so so we are able to walk to the beach and avoid the gigantic traffic mess. We went down early to enjoy the nice weather (but cooooold water!) with some bubbles and football.
As the instructions said, a single firework would be launched at 8:55 to indicate that the lanterns were to be launched. Well, about about 8:47, a firework was shot off. No one really knew what was going on, but we soon saw lanterns in the sky, so we started ours as well.
Everything comes assembled in one kit - you just gently shake open the lantern like you would a trash bag to fill it with air. A few layers of gel-soaked paperboard is suspended below the open bottom. You light that, and it fills the lantern with warm air and light. Within a few minutes, it begins to rise up, so you just let go and off it floats.
There were hundreds, if not thousands of them rising from all along Racine's 3+ miles of beaches and lake front. We were on the north end of town and there was a gentle southern wind, so most of them flew up and over us.
It would have been cooler we had waited 10 or 15 minutes to let it get a bit darker out, but it was still a really cool experience seeing all those lanterns gently floating away. These pictures really don't do it justice.