Join Waukesha resident Brien Lee and his blog, Sir Fido, as they explore the city and report on the interesting things they find.
I'm so glad Waukesha always stages their Fourth of July fireworks on the fourth of July. I noticed this year that Milwaukee and several other communities wasted the aesthetical opportunity by blowing their pricey and usually nice fireworks off in the rain on Tuesday the third. If only they'd have waited one more day . . .
The Expo Center is close enough to walk to and my son and I passed many fun looking backyard and street-side gatherings along the way. We found an excellent spot, which I won't divulge, that was mowed, practically bug-free, not too crowded and close to the action. There seemed to be people perched in every available vantage point -- even the Huber inmates once again had front row seats -- and thanks to the great weather, every spot was a winner.
I took my camera and tripod and got some decent photos of the explosions by leaving the shutter open a few seconds. I watch for specific things in fireworks and am always surprised by seeing something unexpected. This year my favorite shell consisted of a burst which darkened before multiple groups of sparklies lit up the entire area of the huge circle. The circumference of the explosion was so huge that I imagined I was looking at our earth from the darkness of space, and the multiple groups of sparklies were lit cities at night.
Obviously a lot of effort, and money thanks to Don Belman Homes, goes into creating, coreographing and launching a quality display. By not launching in Tuesday's wet weather everyone here enjoyed the best fireworks display I've personally ever seen. The calm winds were just enough to move the smoke but not too much to distort the "falling stars." Normally the smoke is an unpleasant byproduct of fireworks but Wednesday the smoke took on shapes of their own and was kept intact as it slowly drifted eastward. We saw so many huge rings and spidery trails of smoke that the smoke became part of the total experience -- something that would have been washed out on Tuesday.
