Parade Reset

This is my 100th post! so in honor of that, I will give my review of the parade and fireworks from the 3rd of July.

The 2009 Menomonee Falls Independence Day parade and firework have come and gone, and once again it was way overblown. Honestly, I don’t see the crazy fascination with the parade and fireworks. Now, I remember as a kid going to watch the fireworks and thinking they were really cool, and I remember sitting in the park with thousands of other people, maybe I just forget the craziness of it all afterward since I wasn’t the one trying to drive out of the mess.

Anyway, the girls had fun. This year we actually sat with some fellow Riverside families and Sarah and Ali’s friends so they had a good time actually having someone to sit and talk to and play with. They were disappointed however since the people marching in the parade weren’t tossing as much candy to the throngs of children along the route. And those that were, had practically nothing left by the time they got to where we were sitting. I have to say that this year’s parade wasn’t as good as it has been in past years. There were lots of ‘regulars’ from the past parades that were missing this year, such as the Shriners in the little go-kart cars, some of the classic car clubs, and there were only a couple of marching bands, just to name a few.

Then we almost got into fisticuffs with some people over the spot that Ben had roped off for the fireworks. Prior to the parade, he had gone to park in an empty lot across the street from where the fireworks were being shot off. He had parked his car right next to the sidewalk and roped off an empty spot right in front of his car. After the parade was done, we made our way over the to the spot and some people had ignored the tape & stakes he had put up and were sitting in our spot. We just sort of put down our chairs and blankets and ignored them and they moved down just a bit, but I tink it was quite rude to just ignore the tape.

Then the fireworks this year were a bit weak. Granted the Falls doesn’t put on a world class show that you would consider a must see, but the spacing in between shells was a little long and the variety was a little lacking. I think the Village switched fireworks companies this year so that may have something to do with it.

All in all, the girls had fun, and Kris and I enjoyed sitting with people we could actually talk to, both during the parade and the fireworks, but once again I have to say what a freakin’ hassle! Maybe next year we’ll just go and hit a movie instead.