Independence Day - Not Quite As Planned, But...

So, for the second year in a row, my plans went awry for celebrating America's Independence. Instead of going to a big fireworks display over White Bear Lake, we ended up having our own - if not exactly over the St Croix River, then at least beside it...

But you learn to roll with the punches and I kinda geeked myself out with some of the settings on the camera...

Here's Jon & Shirley's boat a.k.a. the Party Palace anchored jsut north of Catfish Bay on the Wisconsin side of the St Croix - lots of diving, swimming, moderate amounts of imbibing, tons of fun:

Some of the fireworks my Brother-In-Law brought for us...

Gretchen enjoying a sparkler...

Ahhhhh, nice. I like the way the "Fireworks" setting kinda time-lapses the picture. Only roblem is the shutter takes so long to close and you have to stay so still, sometimes they kinda shake out. Maybe invest in a tripod?

But, then to our delight, it turns out that some bigwig from Putnam Investments was having a proper demo from St Mary's Point. That's about 1/2 to 3/4 mile upriver on the Minnesota side, so excuse the shake and lack of zoom, but I like the reflection on the water...

Looks like we all had a great day... Hope you did too.

L-R: Corson, London, Jasper, Shirley, Kristine, Gretchen, Joerg, Mary, Jon

p.s. - WTF is Jon doing? Looks like he got some cordite up his schnozz...