We had a pretty great holiday weekend. It was Fairlee’s 250th anniversary so they went all out. Actually, we missed most of it but they had lobster and steak dinners, helicopter rides, antique car shows and sales – all sorts of activities. On the Fourth, we went for a morning ride down and back up the river and timed it to finish up just as the parade was kicking off. Highlights for me included snagging an anniversary t-shirt fired out of a cannon and the tandem jet flyby. I don’t normally get too worked up over stuff like that but the jets really gave me goosebumps. Their appearance was unexpected, at least for me, and they came in so low that I didn’t even hear them until they were upon us from the north. They drifted over slowly enough that you could make out details and then they split apart and climbed up into the clouds and disappeared. Five minutes later they came back up the valley from the south and repeated the trick. Man, I don’t know… something about them just filled me with pride.

Normally we’re away for the holiday weekend, so I don’t have anything to compare them with but we both thought the fireworks were pretty damn good. We staked out a spot up on the hill by the school to avoid the masses. It was a gamble but fortunately the majority of the show was high enough to clear the ridge between us and the lake.

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Here’s the grand finale. We were a mile away or so, I guess, so I snapped on the 70-200mm lens and closed in on the action. I love it!