Friday, July 1st was Canada's 144th birthday. Not sure if it is my imagination, but it seemed that there was much more of a patriotic spirit to the celebrations this year, in general. I think we are beginning to realize just how blessed we are to live in "the True North strong and free:"
O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North, strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free !
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
For our celebration of the day, which is typically climaxed across Canada with a firework display, DOTH (Daughter of the House), TGS (The Grandson) and I headed down to DOTH's sailing club for a very nice, late dinner. Then we settled in, with around 100 other celebrants, to a prime location on the deck of the clubhouse, to wait for the fireworks to begin!
Presented by Ontario Place, a premier waterfront park in downtown Toronto, the display took place on a barge in Lake Ontario just off the coastline of the park.
The CN Tower was all decked out in patriotic colours:
and, although the firework display was disappointingly short this year, still it was quite magnificent.
It was my first time taking nightime photos with my new camera and I had a terrible time finding the right setting, but, right or wrong setting, they turned out not too shabby! Sorry about all the yachts' masts looming in the foreground. Click on the photos for an enlarged view.
About 30 minutes' worth of fireworks at what some have estimated as a $1000 per minute - which TGS, in typical teen fashion, (truthfully) said wasn't worth the money!
It took us three times that long to get home. We left the clubhouse at 11:00pm and arrived home at 12:30am - normally about a 40 minute drive. Traffic was horrendous especially because it was the first really warm day of our summer, a holiday at that; there were a number of other large fireworks displays downtown and some Canada Day parades had garnered thousands of people also. So we crawled home and then crawled into bed, tired but grateful for the country we love.
And now wishing all my U.S. followers a very happy Independence Day - July 4th!
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And now wishing all my U.S. followers a very happy Independence Day - July 4th!
Nice pictures, both the camera and the operator seemed to get it just right. That $1000 was shared amongst several people, so individually it was probably less than a dollar each spectator unless it was a very small audience. Although officially flying out of Toronto on the 30th of June,due to a delay we almost stayed there overnight. More about that on‘t blog.
ReplyDeleteThose firework pictures are fabulous, Kathy. x
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