Just like the 4th of July, but colder.

Everything is different on the Kenai. Just look at our fireworks traditions, its daylight all night on the 4th of July so we have our fireworks to kick off the Christmas Season on the night after Thanksgiving. Its been a long family tradition for us so MP and I keep it alive and go every year.

We used to all meet with our snowmachines at my sister Karen's house. We'd spend the day riding and then come evening wander over to town where the Chamber sponsors a huge bon fire. Some years its been -20 and some years like this one a civilised +20. The fireworks themselves cost the community thousands and has grown into quite a show through the years. One year we had a driving snowstorm and the fireworks reflected and the light bounced around in a really cool way. Even though it was fairly warm last night as you can see by this pic of MP we still needed to be bundled for an hour out in it. The whole town is out for this event so we ran into alot of friends and spent time with my only relatives still in the area, my nephew and his wife, Mitch and Jessica.

You know I'm always on the watch to find the unusual and the city of Kenai is a perfect place to find exactly that. This truck with the Texas style hood ornament was parked right next to our friends Rueben and Mindy....As we walked through the snow we had a high school boyfriend / girlfriend couple walk by. She was having trouble keeping up in the snow and all and I heard him tell her to "heel"....yikes, not many of us would live through that one.

The Fireworks are over and when we get back to the Suby I'm struck with this Deja Vu. Parked right next to us is this Ford Tempo just like my sister would have driven to this same event 20 years ago. But even though its the same color as her Tempo, its not her. The Tempo's long gone and she's in Oregon missing one of her favorite Kenai things. But whoever runs the co-incidence department around here gave me and MP a pretty good laugh.

This last pic is of the street scene. It gives you and idea of how popular the event is. Its that time of year where folks have a bit of cabin fever and Alaskans are never afraid to embrace the outdoors. Pretty cool and unique Friday night here at Mile 14. All in all my new camera seemed to capture it well enough. All the lights are a real challenge. But the darn camera has a 'fireworks' mode that took blury pictures again. Roy, what am I doing wrong? How do you get a good fireworks shot?