The big bay boom!!

Last week saw USA celebrating its Independence day on the fourth of July. Traditionally the celebrations include parades in the morning in various cities and fireworks to close the night that sees many families gathering for lunches, picnics and barbeques. Since it happens to fall during the beginning of summer(21st June is the official first day of summer), people gather in huge numbers near the waterfronts, beaches and parks. They set up tents and cabanas, many of them sporting the national colors of red, white and blue in styles ranging from patriotic to funny to outright wacky. Most of the stores offer special "Fourth of July" discounts and shopaholics have a gala time too.

San Diego boasts of a natural bay that is popularly known as "The Big Bay" since it is surrounded by five cities and houses the city port and many vital naval installations. It is also home to many museum ships, the largest of which is the USS Midway, a one-time aircraft carrier that sailed in the high seas and is now showcasing the military achievements of US Navy and offers insight to the life of the brave heroes. There is also a  Maritime museum that is a floating collection of ships and boats, one of which is called "The Star of India", apparently the oldest active sail-ship. The Midway is anchored right next to seaport village. Now seaport village is like a parking lot for the boats, so you have rows and rows of personal sail-boats and cruise-boats that are anchored there. It presents a very organized picture.  You can settle down for a family picnic on the grass-lawns that dot the stretch along seaport village.

It is in this bay that fireworks are launched simultaneously from four barges every year on the night of Independence and needless to say it is spectacular. The event is known as "The Big Bay Boom" and attracts hordes of spectators. This is where S and me had decided to head for the fireworks display. The first step was to know when was the show, once we learned that it was at 9PM and would last for nearly 30 minutes, we started looking up the internet for other info like from where could we get the best view and what time should we be there to grab a prime viewing spot. We decided that a walk along the harbor drive would be festive and landed there in the evening a full four hours before the spectacle. Having parked our car at the nearest spot we could find but at a safe distance from the crowds, we began strolling along the harbor. On one side we could see the airplanes landing and taking off from the San Diego International airport while on the other side the boats parked out in the harbor were bobbing in the water. You can enjoy pedi-cab aka cycle-rickshaw rides along this stretch and some of them were decked up specially for the occasion.We chose to walk and could see that people had already settled into some of the benches with food and shawls and jackets in anticipation of the fireworks. It is a long stretch of more than a mile and when we entered the seaport village, we could literally smell the festive spirit. The aroma of grilled food was wafting through the place blending with the sea-breeze and the playful excitement of children and chatter of people enjoying a mid-week holiday gave the whole place a vacation-like touch. Quite a few street musicians were entertaining the crowd with their talents on guitar, drums and the like. Barbeques were up in front of tents, there were food-vans dishing out burgers and hot-dogs. With stalls selling t-shirts, funky jewellery and glittering accessories ranging from eye-masks to hats to funny headgear, it was like a typical "Mela" only this one was located in US :)

 We walked around soaking ourselves in the leisurely spirit, not minding the winding queue for a hot fudge sundae, relishing our choice of scoops chunky-monkey and coconut seven layer bar. Summer here means the sunset doesn't happen until its nearly 8PM, so as the sun began to descend below the horizon, we began our search for a spot to watch the fireworks. Luckily, we found ourselves a nice lookout on a pier near the USS Midway and stood waiting for the spectacle to unveil. We had a radio jockey of the local Walrus FM station for company and he was hosting the show live from where we stood. So we had great music to keep us entertained till the show began, and when it was close to 9PM, all of us began a chorus countdown prompted by the RJ and the moment we had counted down till one, "BOOM" went the fireworks, and the best part was from where we stood , we managed to see three of the four sets of fireworks.What followed was a sky dazzling in red, blue, gold, purple, silver  and green with hardly any breathing space between each round. Each time, identical fireworks lit up the sky from all of the four barges in perfect sync. The pictures below were taken from the phone and do not quite do justice to the brilliant display we witnessed. The last of the dazzlers went of at 9.30PM and we walked back to our car before driving back home mesmerized by one of the best choreographed fireworks we had ever seen.