Sallying Forth

[cherydactyl]

illyaa's office closed early on Thursday, so we went out for the afternoon to see Wall E. The kids rode bikes and we walked to the theatre; it's about a mile or a mile and a quarter from our house. There were a couple of harsh words with the kids when they didn't obey the rules about crossing streets and driveways, mostly on the way back. :( WallE was extremely fun. I liked that the large portions of the movie were almost completely without dialog, with only a little exposition in spoken form for the first part. I've always liked stories told with little or no dialog; they seem more pure. Dialog is spin. ;-)

Yesterday morning we went to Ann Arbor's Independence Day Parade. We were running a little late, but got a spot at the corner of William and Main, which is late in the parade route. This was on purpose, to minimize the candy haul for the kids. There were (as expected) a lot of politicians. We especially cheered for the Ring of Steel folks, and the Juggling Arts Club, as well as the Young People's Theater. There was discussion on ArborParents (a email list I am on) of getting an ArborParents group to march in the parade in the future. I would totally enjoy that, so I hope it happens.

We chilled out for the afternoon. I fielded a visit to the door of a Republican candidate looking for the previous owner of the house. We bought this house nearly 14 years ago, so his info was rather out of date. I set him a little straight, politely.

Later, we packed a picnic supper and headed out to Kensington Metro Park for the evening. We ate sandwiches and strawberries and played Mama Mia (M almost understood it I think; it's a really difficult game...but S won) until it got too dark. S rolled down the grassy hill, wrapped in her blanket. It was a little chilly. Then we settled in for the fireworks, which started at 10:10 pm EDT. It was a very nice show. (Note to sorcycat, this is fairly close to your place, so a joint picnic in the future might be fun.) Like last year's venture out to Hudson Mills on July 3, the girls were asleep pretty quickly after we got to the car. We got home right before midnight.

Comments

[pattimst3k.livejournal.com]

Do you like silent movies? If you say yes, in the future I will coerce you into going with me to the Michigan Theater to watch them. Jeff merely tolerates them, so I'm always bugging people to go.

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

I am not really sure, having only seen them in parody situations. I'd be willing to try real ones.

[sorcycat.livejournal.com]

There _was_ a show near us? It bloody sounded like cannon and small arms fire. It was loud and frequent for an hour and I was afraid it was going to keep the toddler awake or frighten the baby!

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

I think it's more likely to cause them, especially E, to go to sleep, as that is the major behavior in the face of loud noises that babies exhibit.

I'm not sure how close it is to you as the crow flies, but Kensington Metropark is just off 96 just east of where it intersects with 23, so it can't be that far.

OTOH, maybe there were other fireworks in your neighborhood? The Kensington show was only 1/2 hour, though there were 10-minute and 5-minute pre-show warning shots. We could see bits of other nearby shows (Whitmore Lake and somewhere we figure?) to the east/southeast, which is the direction we were facing.

[evalerie.livejournal.com]

Oh cool! A few years ago when I last asked if anybody wanted to get an Arborparents group together to march in the parade, I only got two people who said they were interested, so I didn't do it. I think it would be a blast! It seems like there's more interest in it now than there was then, so maybe it'll happen. Though someone suggested that the kids' school should join the parade. I really like that idea, so maybe I'll organize a school group instead. I've been in the parade a few times in the past -- it is fun!

[curiouskendra.livejournal.com]

I went to the Kensington Fireworks a few years ago (3 or 4). They were pretty good, except for having to wait for a long time to get out of the park. (It's about 2 or 3 mile from L's House). I was in at a friends house playing board games on the 4th and it sounded like mortar fire from the basement. I think the house even shook. Sounds like you had an extra cool day though, neeto.

sallying forth

[jixel.livejournal.com]

zomg that's such a great expression! did you make that up, or did i just miss out on all the cute puns with her name in them back in the day!

[dspitzle.livejournal.com]

Mary and I attempted to attend the Kensington Metro Park fireworks as well. Unfortunately, assuming that a Metro Park would be nice and huge, we aimed to get there around 10pm, when the fireworks were supposed to start.

REALLY, INCREDIBLY BAD IDEA.

You see, according the police car stationed in front of the Metro Park entrance at the end of 15 minutes of backed up traffic, the park was closed... before the fireworks in the park had started. Nice that the park planners didn't add to the marketing materials that "you can't get into the park less than one hour before the fireworks display". I'm honestly surprised you weren't being herded out of the park in advance of the fireworks, since I could see a stream of cars coming from a mile or more inside the park, and again, the police claimed the park was closed - not too full, just closed.

Of course, this resulted in hundreds of cars parking along the off AND on ramps to I-96, two or three cars deep. Since this was our third attempt to see fireworks in the last week and a half (Van Buren - rained out on the 26th, Ypsi - ground too soggy on the 3rd after they were rained out the 2nd), Mary was livid/extremely depressed, as well as panicked that we would hit an oblivious pedestrian walking around the highway ramps like they were at Top of the Park. The fact that every minute or so on the way home we could see fireworks displays off in the distance from communities all along I-275 just added insult to injury.

Sorry to rant, but this Kensington fiasco capped off a pretty rough couple of weeks for Mary, so she was seriously bummed for a day or so afterwards. I'm pretty peeved at the event planners.

[cherydactyl.livejournal.com]

The park info we looked at before we went recommended getting to the park no later than 8 pm. Even if you had been let in, I doubt you would have found a reasonable place to park and view from before the show was at least a quarter over. :(

When we got there at about 7:20ish, already there was a line of cars entering the park to deal with at the entrance off of I-96. We did not try to get a spot at the beach area, where the loudspeakers piping the synchronized music apparently are located. I suspect that would have been much harder to deal with.

We figure the best experience would be to go even earlier and make an afternoon of it. There are way lots of people who come, so I can understand why the officials would want to close the park to entry somewhat before 10pm. It was hard enough to park when we were there before 8:00. I can understand your frustration, and I think even meeting the 8pm recommendation would lead to similar frustration on many people's part. It was much more sane at Hudson Mills last year, but Kensington is a bigger park, the show is bigger, and it draws bigger crowds.

Edited for partial deletion of line--corrected.