Fireworks!
2023-Aug-07, Monday 11:35![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dorchadas
Last weekend was another grandparents' weekend, so on Friday I went down to ![[instagram.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/profile_icons/instagram.png)
sashagee on Friday night and stayed through Saturday. We didn't do much exciting that day other than eat food with Laila--and I walked like eight miles between towns and back along the river while Laila was asleep--but that night was the fireworks!
Batavia has award-winning fireworks that have been going for decades. The fourth was on a Tuesday this year, so I didn't go out to the suburbs, butsashagee and Laila did. They went to the fireworks, everyone got all excited...and then the system failed. And the backup system failed, and no fireworks went off, and everyone went home grumpy. They rescheduled the fireworks for August 5th and we planned to head back there. My parents' house is a ten minute walk from the fireworks, and sashagee wanted some funnel cake, so we went down early to scout out a spot. From what she said about last time, there were maybe a quarter as many people as there were on the 4th, so we got our funnel cake and found a spot literally right in front of the fireworks. Before too long, sashagee told me my parents had found a parking spot right by the barricades and suggested I help them carry the chairs, so I walked down the road until I saw them and some people sitting nearby got a cute view of Laila seeing me and starting to run to me, me running to her, and then grabbing her and swinging her around in the air. 
The fireworks were extra nice! No major crowds and it was easy to get home afterwards. We put Laila to bed--she was exhausted by the end--and went to bed not too much longer ourselves. The fireworks were indeed super
AMERICA themed and the music didn't really blend together very well, but the actual fireworks were beautiful.
The next day after breakfast, we got into cars and drove to Morton Arboretum for the Pan-Asia Festival. It really was Pan-Asian, with the sound of an erhu greeting us as we entered and later, people performing Indian dance. The part I found most interesting, though, was the sumō. I used to go see the Fukuoka Nihon Sumō Kyōkai every year and I didn't realize there was an amateur league--with amateur competitions, since they said they were going to Tokyō later in the year to compete! We stayed and watched two bouts between the performers beforesashagee said she really needed to sit down, so I bought us boba while she found a seat--brown sugar for her, taro for me--and we sat and drank it and watched the people go by. When we were done, we met my parents and Laila, glad that Laila seemed totally unphased by the giant knot on her head she had earned from falling after running too fast down a ramp, and went home. Laila took a nap, we ate dinner when she woke up, and then came back into the city.
Certain less event variety than the old posts I used to write, but Laila running excited yelling "Ababababa!" when she saw me makes up for that.
sashagee on Friday night and stayed through Saturday. We didn't do much exciting that day other than eat food with Laila--and I walked like eight miles between towns and back along the river while Laila was asleep--but that night was the fireworks!Batavia has award-winning fireworks that have been going for decades. The fourth was on a Tuesday this year, so I didn't go out to the suburbs, but
sashagee and Laila did. They went to the fireworks, everyone got all excited...and then the system failed. And the backup system failed, and no fireworks went off, and everyone went home grumpy. They rescheduled the fireworks for August 5th and we planned to head back there. My parents' house is a ten minute walk from the fireworks, and sashagee wanted some funnel cake, so we went down early to scout out a spot. From what she said about last time, there were maybe a quarter as many people as there were on the 4th, so we got our funnel cake and found a spot literally right in front of the fireworks. Before too long, sashagee told me my parents had found a parking spot right by the barricades and suggested I help them carry the chairs, so I walked down the road until I saw them and some people sitting nearby got a cute view of Laila seeing me and starting to run to me, me running to her, and then grabbing her and swinging her around in the air. The fireworks were extra nice! No major crowds and it was easy to get home afterwards. We put Laila to bed--she was exhausted by the end--and went to bed not too much longer ourselves. The fireworks were indeed super
AMERICA themed and the music didn't really blend together very well, but the actual fireworks were beautiful.The next day after breakfast, we got into cars and drove to Morton Arboretum for the Pan-Asia Festival. It really was Pan-Asian, with the sound of an erhu greeting us as we entered and later, people performing Indian dance. The part I found most interesting, though, was the sumō. I used to go see the Fukuoka Nihon Sumō Kyōkai every year and I didn't realize there was an amateur league--with amateur competitions, since they said they were going to Tokyō later in the year to compete! We stayed and watched two bouts between the performers before
sashagee said she really needed to sit down, so I bought us boba while she found a seat--brown sugar for her, taro for me--and we sat and drank it and watched the people go by. When we were done, we met my parents and Laila, glad that Laila seemed totally unphased by the giant knot on her head she had earned from falling after running too fast down a ramp, and went home. Laila took a nap, we ate dinner when she woke up, and then came back into the city. Certain less event variety than the old posts I used to write, but Laila running excited yelling "Ababababa!" when she saw me makes up for that.
