Fireworks! (Updated)

Of course, we went to the fireworks, we're on vacation over Independence Day!

First, the Parade.  Kailua-Kona's Independence Day Parade was pretty much a typical small-town affair, which seems odd in a tourist town, but is actually fitting.  The area still makes a lot of money off of farming coffee and macademia nuts, as well as milking tourists.

Grand Marshal was Senator Daniel Inouye.  Since he's President Pro Tem of the Senate, he rates a Secret Service detail.   Who were NOT in suit; whether their dress code now allows for Hawaiian Shirts, or the Senator insisted, I don't know...  However, the radio "personalities" were narrating the parade were cracking wise about the agents non-stop, which resulted in a couple of them looking like they might be thinking about smiling.



Senator Inouye was accompanied by fellow veterans of the 442d Regimental Combat Team.










Then we moved down to the pier for the Fireworks Dinner Cruise.  Last time we were here, we went on a "Evening On The Reef" dinner cruise with Blue Sea Cruises, which operates a glass bottom boat.  Alas, the fish did not cooperate, and it was "merely" a nice buffet dinner out on the bay, watching the sun go down, listening to Big Daddy sing.

This time, the wells for the glass bottom were covered, and it was a nice buffet dinner,l listening to Big Daddy sing while a young lady (who's name I will most certainly mangle if I attempt to spell it) danced hula, capped off by a spectacular fireworks display.

I'm afraid my photography does not do the display justice.  The boat was kinda rockin' and rollin'...

(I only had two mai tais, so surely that couldn't be it.)

Now, at this time of year the mornings in the Kailua-Kona region are usually sunny, turning hazy with "vog" (volcanic smog) in the afternoons, usually with rain thrown in for variety.

It started sprinkling before we boarded the boat, with what we in the Pacific Northwet like to call "sun breaks."  This led to a rather spectacular rainbow as we were pulling away from the pier; we could see both ends, but it was too large to photograph.

Mrs. Drang definitely took the best shot of it of anyone on board: