While we normally don't venture out on holiday weekends due to crowds and traffic, Denny and I decided to check out Ocean City's fireworks on the beach last night. As it had been sunny all day, we left at 8 p.m. to head to the beach with the intent of trying to get a picture of the sun setting over the ocean. Naturally, the skies clouded up just prior to our leaving but we decided to go early on the chance that the skies would clear.
What we discovered after tossing a few bucks in a fireman's boot as a donation was a huge crowd at the beach, partying hard. We're talking people and cars as far as the eye could see in either direction. And 70 percent of them had fireworks. I've already mentioned that fireworks are permitted on the beach from June 28 through July 6th and people came fully prepared to enjoy that freedom. We tried to guesstimate the size of the crowd and figure there might have been 5,000 people along the full stretch of the beach and they were setting off thousands of dollars of fireworks. I'm not talking sparklers and lady fingers; these folks had rockets and flares and near-professional exploding sprays of fireworks. When darkness fell to the south of us, you could see fireworks going off practically to infinity. It was the most amazing display as we were entirely encircled by folks with all sorts of pyrotechnics. And the strangest part was, after 2 hours of watching fireworks, we had to leave before Ocean City's professional display as the tide had come up and was washing against the truck's tires and we were afraid of getting stuck in soft sand. By that time, there was no where else to move due to the crowd without interfering with the main roadway so we left. What a neat experience that was!
On another note, in an earlier blog entry I had mused about the identify of the flowers with the tubular blossoms I was seeing here in Washington as well as wondering why Tall Chief Golf Course had only 12 holes. Well, Bill Joyce, a native Washingtonian (I have no idea what folks from Washington are called-we Ohioans are Buckeyes), read my blog and wrote to inform me that the flowers are foxglove, latin name digitalis purpurea. Foxglove is a source of digitalis, prescribed by doctors to strengthen the heart and regulate its beat and is extremely poisonous. But it is a beautiful flower. Bill also explained that the Tall Chief GC used to be 18 holes, but when the campground/golf course went bankrupt a developer purchased a section of the golf course to build upon, leaving the remaining 12 holes. Mystery solved. I told you the people of Washington were friendly and helpful!
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