Our first Celebration July 4th was a great time. This was our first big community event as residents rather than tourists.
We managed to catch the tail end of the 9am parade.

It was already steamy hot at 9:30 in the morning — uncomfortably so — but it didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s enthusiasm. We were surprised by the number of people that turned out! It was crowded but definitely manageable. Note for next time: bring the portable chairs. Once the parade was over we wandered around the downtown for a bit, grabbed a Coke from Upper Crust (10:15am ended up being a bit early for a pizza, though I had a serious internal debate about it), and strolled back home.
We spent the middle of the day hanging around our East Village (Blue Sage) condo. I was reading a book out on the balcony when a somewhat large, somewhat sweaty guy walked by on the sidewalk and said “Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Celebration Ave.?”
“Are you trying to get downtown?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you on foot?”
“Yeah.”
He looked absolutely exhausted, drenched in sweat. I didn’t have the heart to tell him he was still a mile away from the center of activity, only that it was pretty far, about a 20 minute walk. I directed him to the trail behind Eastlawn… hopefully he found it!
Later in the afternoon, around 5 or so, friends Leah & Rory came over and we all walked to the downtown. We didn’t see anyone passed out along the path, so hopefully the sweaty guy found his way. Once downtown we immediately settled in to an outdoor table at the Celebration Town Tavern, and were thankful for it. The crew there took great care of us, and you gotta love the food and location! The people watching was fantastic from our vantage point.

Once nighttime settled in, fireworks started.

We couldn’t hear the music very well from our location, but the show was still outstanding, especially with the moon in frame. The geography of downtown and where the fireworks are shot from offered lots of great vantage points.
The best part of the night? Being able to walk home!