smalltown USA

There are many perks to living in a small town like Edmonds. Well, maybe the town isn't so small but we live in the downtown part of it which consists of a Main Street with a one screen movie theater so that qualifies as small-town if you ask me.
One thing I like about small-town living is that we get to walk everywhere. We can walk to the bakery, the theater, the post office, our gym, our friends' houses, the grocery store, some yummy restaurants, the Farmer's market, the local pub, the park, the library, Starbucks, or to the waterfront to watch the sunset.

Another thing I like is that we have events. This Fourth of July was our first time to experience the annual Independence Day parade in Edmonds. Last year we were gone hiking so we missed out on the merriment and chaos that overtakes our sleepy downtown in a sea of red, white, blue, and happy.

I'm pretty sure we exceeded the maximum capacity of people in downtown Edmonds for this event. Clearly, this is THE event of the year here. I guess I should've guessed it was such when I saw that people had lined up their lawn chairs and staked our their viewing spots the morning beforehand. Having no lawn chairs or staked out spots of our own, we pushed and shoved our way along the crowded sidewalks to join our friends the Grants and the Schaeffers who had secured a corner on some prime viewing property.

The festivities began with the Children's Parade in which every walking child within a five mile radius was walking and all children too young to walk were pulled, pushed, or dragged in wagons, strollers, or other modes of transportation decorated in all the red, white, & blue patriotic decor imaginable.
Next came THE parade. We watched fire trucks, vintage cars, Shriners, colonial minutemen, bagpipers, politicians, marching bands, cheerleaders, pirates, clowns and even Storm Troopers parade through downtown. Most of them threw assorted candy at us (or to us), which the kids and Dan enjoyed. Some handed out little rubber balls. The more health conscious participants handed out water bottles and samples of sunscreen and hand sanitizer.

The loot. We cheered and clapped and waved tiny American flags while Jackson tried to sleep amid the blasts of tubas, honking firetruck horns, bagpipe tunes, and other various LOUD noises. It was a fun day.