This year, I spent the Fourth of July in Telluride, Colorado with my family. It took me a while to get out there due to some ground transportation issues, but fortunately things went my way in the air.
The 4th started with a viewing of the parade. It was… interesting to see how a small town in Colorado celebrates the holiday. Before the parade started, it looked like it would be a traditional affair:
And it did start off with what you might expect.
There was a military presence.
There were bagpipes.
And there was a fire truck,
followed by some old cars,
and then an old fire truck.
But then it got kind of random. And weird.
Actually, as I write this I do remember that one 4th of July in Pittsburgh the band performing before the fireworks performed “Soul Man,” so maybe Telluride isn’t all that different.
It looks like part of the tradition is for there to be a water fight between the crowd and the marchers. The marchers also throw candy at the crowd.
No green theme would be complete the obligatory hippie-themed biodiesel-powered bus. Hint to all of you wonderful tree-huggers out there: You’ve already marketed the whole green thing to yourselves. Now you might want to stop preaching solely to the choir and market eco-friendly practices to “the man” or whatever it is you call people who shave.
One float’s theme was “Party like it’s 2006.”
After a relaxing lunch and afternoon in Mountain Village, we went back into town for dinner at Rustico, one of my favorite restaurants. Both the food and service are excellent. We’ve been going there enough that the staff recognizes us even though we only make it out a few times each year, and I think it’s generally a good signal when a restaurant’s staff remains the same over the years. They were even able to quickly handle a sudden rain shower after seating nearly everyone outside.
After dessert, the rain stopped and we went outside to see the fireworks. It was one of the longest displays I’ve seen, and the full moon and reverberations in the valley made it even more fun to experience.
I’ll end with this gem from SkyMall:
Haha the skymall picture is hilarious. She even has a printer!
Nice pictures from Telluride.