RJ's First Fireworks Display

For Independence Day, Lance, RJ, and I ventured up to what is described as the "largest show West of the Mississippi". We realize that it was not RJ's first Independence Day, it WAS his first fireworks display because, well, we were exhausted by his newbornliness last year.

We snagged a piece of sand on the public beach in South Lake Tahoe to hang out for a few hours before the show started (it was getting crowded fast). It's weird that we're wearing sweatshirts and jeans on a beach on July 4, but Lake Tahoe is an alpine lake with a surface elevation of over 6000 ft, so it gets cold at night! During this time, RJ found a stray beach ball and tried to walk all over the place kicking it and carrying it. He even shared the stray ball with a new friend named TJ who was a month older than him!


The real fun was trying to contain him on our blanket when it started to get dark - he was a bit active, as you will see in the video. He was VERY overtired since he was staying up WAY past his bedtime. However, the fireworks seemed to make him calmer, because once they started and he noticed them, he settled down in my lap and just watched. He was not scared one bit, probably because the fireworks weren't very loud since they we launched from a barge quite a bit offshore.




The next day we drove around Emerald Bay, looking for a parking spot at a trail head, but due to holiday weekend crowdedness, none were to be found. We did get a few nice pictures of Emerald Bay though. We gave up our search of a good trail to hike and instead found parking at a beach. RJ and I braved the chilly waters of the lake and played on the sand. RJ made friends with some boys who dug a big hole filled with water and some other children who were making "soup" with the sand.

I think we'll have to return to Lake Tahoe when it is not a holiday weekend so that we can enjoy more of the natural splendor of the region.