Day 24 - Primal Fascinations

Okay, so here's the scoopage on yesterday's festivities. It occurred to me while we were watching the fantastic display that there must be something in our hard-wiring as human beings that fascinates us about sparkling, flashing lights. I mean, on a purely rational level, there isn't any reason for fireworks at all--except we are drawn to the spectacle. And the Canadohta Lake fireworks were, indeed, spectacular.

But first came the picnic! Here is the view from John and Grace's of the aforementioned lake. (It seemed a lot lighter out when I was snapping these pictures.)


Lots of our family was there, including my bro and sister-in-law, all the way from northern Virginia. What's in the blue bag held by Dave, you might ask? Well, I could give you a hundred guesses and you would most likely still not come up with the answer: little rubber duckies, which were distributed to any and all willing recipients.


My dad and Uncle Conrad. Dad is wearing his "Beeriodic Table" sweatshirt, but unfortunately I didn't get a recognizable photo of it.


Our crew from Mayville, New York. For those of you keeping track, all these folks were also at the Hot Fish Shop a week earlier.


Pictured in the yellow shirt is John, our cousin and the founder of the feast. (I didn't get any pictures of his wife, Grace, but she is equally responsible for the festivities!)


Sad to say that we all left hungry, as there was nary a thing to eat.


This is what happened when my mom was testing to see if she had successfully disengaged the flash in anticipation for photographing the upcoming fireworks display. (Hint: She hadn't.)


And now, the fireworks! I don't think that pictures can really do them adequate justice, so I'll offer a bit of explanation. These were launched from right down the hill (you can see the truck in the picture of the lake). So they were pretty much *right* over our heads. Very bright, and very loud.









This is my favorite one. I pointed the camera a bit lower in order to see some of the area from which they were launching the shells. You can see the silhouette of a tree in the white flash.



After the fireworks, things got *really* primal when John lit the big bonfire. The second photo is included in an attempt to give a sense of scale.



Tomorrow is my last full day here in Pennsylvania. Sad, but there's lots of stuff to do that awaits back in Tennessee. Maybe I'll finally get outside for a run tomorrow . . . but don't hold your breath that I do.