Kaboom Town

First of all, a bit of a holler at my Sister for calling us at 7:30 and scaring us to death. Gosh.

Second of all, Henry totally went to Kaboom Town.

It was raining as I made our sandwiches for our picnic dinner. It was raining as Joey went to pick up Matt. It was raining as we looked for a bag large enough to hide Henry in if necessary. It was raining as we drove to Kaboom Town. And then it stopped.

"Oh look!" I said, "It's clearing to the West!"

And as soon as I said that it began to rain again. Very hard. (Obviously I didn't learn anything in the Boundary Waters.)

We continued driving in the very steady rain, parked in a nearly empty parking garage (got a great spot, too, right by the exit) and sat down on the cement to eat our sandwiches and cookies. Henry was jealous because I'd forgotten to bring him food, so he just sat on the ground and tried not to beg. He wasn't very successful.

The rain finally mostly stopped, so Joey, Henry, Matt and I decided we'd walk over to the circle and see what was going on. As we neared the circle I realized that there really was no controlled entrance/exit, just policemen standing at strategic places along the sidewalks people were using to enter.

Joey had been walking a very soggy Henry, but when he saw the policeman he quickly handed the leash to me. "He's your dog," Joey said. "I'm not getting in trouble for this."

So Henry and I walked right by the policeman. Twice.

Neither time did they stop us or say, "No dogs." (Probably because Henry is so cute.)

The rain finally stopped and the sky got clearer. We decided to stay so we set up our chairs and camped out. A family came and sat in front of us about twenty minutes later. The little boy said, "Mom, look! They brought their dog! We should have brought ours."

The mom looked back at me with great disdain and said, rather loudly, "I don't like to break rules." She kept shooting me dirty looks for the next hour, during which time I leaned over to Matt and said, "You can play with Henry, just don't make him bark. That woman looks real angry and whatnot." Matt noticed the lady's grouchy demeanor and pretty much stopped playing with Henry on the spot. We weren't feeling like risk takers.

Then suddenly Grouchface (that lady) disappeared. She returned around 8:00. With her dog.

This Kaboom Town thing was pretty cool. There was a military jazz band, a mini airshow with mostly WW2 era planes but a few tricksy ones that did flips and hammerheads and scared me a lot, an annoying band, and then, fireworks.

Matt and I agreed that these were the best fireworks we'd ever seen. I'm not sure if Joey agrees or not, he and Jordan were talking. Loudly. The whole time. (This is still a sensitive issue, if you can't tell.)

My favorite part was that the finale was color-coordinated.

Henry did not care for the fireworks at all. He shook like a leaf for the first half, then by the second half gave up caring entirely but refused to be put on the ground. He sort of clung to me for dear life in an apathetic sort of way.

We stayed until 12:00 a.m. watching October Sky (Henry didn't mind that so much) and drove home in zero traffic.

All in all, a very nice 3rd/4th of July. I hope yours is as good.

And Henry hopes your fireworks aren't as scary.