4th of July Festivities

Well, Bryce had to work on the 4th, and Nicolas didn’t really want to go to any parades or anything, so we hung out at home in the morning.  After lunch, we headed down to nearby Fremont, OH where I had heard there was going to be concert by Toledo Symphony Orchestra on the grounds of the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Home.

There was apparently a parking issue due to a bigger crowd than they expected, but we easily found a spot on the street just a couple blocks away.  We walked to the grounds, and joined the crowd already assembled on the lawn, just in time for the concert to start.

The Orchestra was on the porch of the Hayes Home.

They played a selection of patriotic tunes, and during one medley of songs had a couple dressed as Rutherford and Lucy Hayes reading from the letters they wrote to each other while he was away fighting in the Civil War.

Nicolas said it wasn’t exactly his type of music, but it was pretty good, and in the final number they had some Civil War Re-Enactors shooting off cannons.

That was exciting! and loud!

Afterwards, we walked past to take a look at the cannons, and got to see one more firing up close!  They let the announcer fire the cannon (ok, it was just a blank – no actual cannons were fired),and I think he was shocked at how loud it was!

After the concert, we went back to the camper to get Casey out for a while and give her dinner, then we headed into Port Clinton for the evening.  There were lots of activities planned, including a car show in a park in downtown.

It was a small show, but there were several really nice old cars,

and some interesting & unique ones, too!

I think this one would look great behind the motorhome!

You could drive it to the beach and have your own diving board!

Nicolas had his own favorites!

After looking at all the cars, we enjoyed a complimentary dish of ice cream at the ice cream social, and then went in search of somewhere to eat dinner and a good spot to watch the various fireworks scheduled for that night.

We were told that if we went to the state park east of Port Clinton, we could see not only Part Clinton’s fireworks, but also Put-in-Bay’s and Cedar Point’s fireworks.

We found the state park, and sure enough, there was a group of people congregating along the shoreline with chairs, so we were in the right place.  We picked a good spot and set up our chairs.  For a hot day, it was quickly cooling off as a strong wind was blowing in off the water!

None of us had brought sweatshirts, so we had to get the quilt out of the Jeep and huddle together under it!

We watched the sun set as we waited for the fireworks and the crowd continued to grow.

Despite the chilly breeze off the lake, it was a beautiful evening and we enjoyed watching the fireworks over Lake Erie!