By The Rockets Red Glare, The Bombs Bursting In Air

Given that our itinerary ended up getting reversed due to clouds on the Oregon Coast towards the beginning of the trip, that put us heading towards the coast around Independence Day.

We learned of Depoe Bay’s July 3 disply as we sat in a coffee shop in Hood River, so we hopped in the car and made the trek.

That display over the rocky coast was great, but the following night at Seaside was a much bigger spectacle.

In addition to the official display at Seaside, people had brought a significant quantity of their own fireworks to shoot off on the spacious beach. We had purchased a pack of fountains in Montana knowing that Oregon didn’t allow rockets and mortars, but we found that many people had purchased the disallowed varieties across the border in Washington.

One of our favorite things to do was to take long exposure shots while we “painted” with the 3′ long sparklers we had brought. Fortuantely they lasted several minutes, so we could take several shots with each one!
We stayed on the beach until about 11:30pm, which was good since the traffic getting out of town was a challenge until well past midnight.