Collideoscope

We got to the Brooklyn Promenade about 2:00 pm. The Promenade hangs out over the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway (one and two levels below where we were standing), is directly above the Piers on the Brooklyn side of the East River and faces downtown Manhattan. Since the fireworks go off in the East River, it's the perfect place to watch the show. The weather was cool and overcast which meant that there were still great spots left to find to watch the show. And then the rain started. Yes, that's right. From about 4:30 pm until about 9:20 pm yesterday afternoon it rained. And rained, and rained.

(view looking up-river before the rain)

(hmmm, picture of us with umbrellas is strangely missing . . . I'll add it in later)

It never poured but there was just a constant shower. Then it would let up for about 20 minutes and then sprinkle and then stop and the come down heavy again. And even with the umbrellas and the beach towels and sitting on a bench you couldn't help but get damp. Needless to say it made for an interesting way to spend the holiday.

Then about 6 pm the barges started stationing themselves all along the river. We had excellent seats because one of the barges stopped directly infront of us.

Around 7:30 pm people started pouring into the Promenade. I think they thought that the rain had stopped (we'd had about 35 min with virtually nothing) and so they decided to turn out. At that point things got really crowded and we had to defend our seats (I was working on my football blocking moves) but the really nice family beside us helped out and we managed to keep our unobstructed view.

The heaviest rain of the day started about 8:50 pm and kept coming down right up until 9:25 pm when the show started. And then all of a sudden it just stopped. And the show was great.