July 4th in Haines, AK

Happy Independence Day!

Dalton City is an old movie set moved to the Haines fairgrounds.  It has a quilting shop, micro-brewery and other  retail stores.  It was pretty quiet as the 4th activities were about to start.  We took a quick look around, and then went to the parade.

Community Garden

When have you last seen a regular sandbox???  With toys to play with no less.

This looks like a good project for Bernie.  Something all the little Rand girls and boy need at their "grands" house.

Leading off the parade. 

The Mayor was next and tossed out Tootsie Rolls.  Papa Dave grabbed some for the kids.

A Community Marching Band...

I thought Justin & Kat would like a closer view of the percussion section.  Most of the members were wearing brown rubber boots like the trombone player.

Pretty laid back traffic control.  He was watching the parade.

The sign says "Shoulder Work".  These were crews doing "community service".

There were so many kids in the parade, it is a wonder there were kids left to watch. 

The dogs were represented too.

David is competing with some other seniors picking up candy.

We recognized this car.  1952 Plymouth from Fairbanks.  Owners Bill & Joyce with their son Klint.  We met them in Fairbanks (the day we went with their club to another member's gold mine).

We finally made it out here to see them work, but they were just cleaning up.  Getting off early to participate in the special July 4th activities in town.

 

This was the park we rode out toward on the tandem.  The road was bad and it kept going up and up.  We had no idea how much further and turned back.  I am so glad.  It was an awful road.  This part is a 14% downgrade.

It did lead us to where we could see two glaciers.

This is the one on the right in the above picture.

David was fascinated with some valve on this pump.  He was determined to figure it out.

Eureka, it could run the drinking fountain or fill a bucket (spout facing him).

Always good to have a sign like this on a drinking fountain.

 We took a break then headed back to town.  Short trip and we didn't want to bother with taking helmets on and off, so left them at the mh.

Think Kat would like to play Mud Volleyball???

One of the participants said you have to hose off outside.  If you jump in the shower, you'll leave a sandbar on the bottom.

This was a kid pleaser.  They got to put on turn out coats and helmets and grab the fire hose.

A fishing float was hanging from a cable stretched between two large pieces of heavy lifting equipment.  The teams shot their water at the float ball.  The competition kept up until one team moved the float over some mark.  Other kids loved all the over-spray on the sides.  They played in the puddles in the gutters too.  It was understood the event would be over if the fire crews needed to respond to something, but they seemed to be there for quite some time.  Lots and lots of kids got to participate.

We didn't stay for all of it.  We headed up to the old fort, where the car display was held. 

I've never seen a car "show" where the cars were parked on a street that was open to traffic.

These pictures are for Stacy.

There was not room for cars to go both ways on this street, but people seemed to work it out.  I saw one Excursion pull up on the sidewalk to give another car room to get by.

Heading out for fireworks pretty soon.  They can't shoot them off until 11pm...trying to wait for some dark.  Hope you all had a great 4th too!

People were gathering at the water for the fireworks.

We brought the tandem right past these folks. 

Someone was shooting off fireworks from the beach.  We had to keep turning to see them on both sides of us.

This was the "official" show.  Seemed odd with no music.

We were next to the boat ramp.  We watched these kids drive up with the inflatable boat folded up.  They got it inflated and in the water pretty quick.  I was impressed they were all wearing PFD's.  They shot off a few fireworks once out in the bay.  I couldn't figure out how they did it.  They would have to shoot them off awfully close to people in that environment.

I loved the reflection in the water.