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Dec. 8th, 2006 11:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaLast night we braved a bitterly cold wind to go to the annual lighting of Baltimore's Washington Monument - the enormous phallic centerpiece of our neighborhood, and the nation's first monument to Washington.
For the first part of the evening, the monument is beautifully lit with a projected snowflake pattern. Holiday choirs perform, restaurants have booths with hot coffee and soup, and community organizations shiver while they hand out information. Apparently, this year there was a representation of the Washington Monument in cake, which was lit up with tiny lights. (We missed it.)
At the end of the performance, the mayor (this year, he's also the governor-elect) lights up brilliant strings of holiday lights which are strung from the top of the monument to the ground, and fireworks are set off in celebration. That's what we were there for, and we were not disappointed. What I hadn't realized was that, given the tight dimensions of the square around the monument, the fireworks would be really really close. Michael and Bill estimated that we were perhaps 80 feet away. (It seemed like less, to me.) We were enveloped in enormous clouds of smoke, and ashes floated down onto our coats. Most of the fireworks were the kind that shoot up from the ground, rather than the kind that go high in the air and then explode - increasing the dramatic sense of immediacy. There were even brilliant, long-burning fountains of fire shooting up directly from the street.
My favorite aspect of the entire display involved some lucky positioning. We were standing just behind the dramatic statue of Lafayette on a rearing horse. So as the booms and flashes and clouds of smoke billowed around us, we could see the dark silhouette of a rider emerging from them. It felt a little bit like being in the middle of a supernatural battle.
Cooool. And totally worth the cold.
For the first part of the evening, the monument is beautifully lit with a projected snowflake pattern. Holiday choirs perform, restaurants have booths with hot coffee and soup, and community organizations shiver while they hand out information. Apparently, this year there was a representation of the Washington Monument in cake, which was lit up with tiny lights. (We missed it.)
At the end of the performance, the mayor (this year, he's also the governor-elect) lights up brilliant strings of holiday lights which are strung from the top of the monument to the ground, and fireworks are set off in celebration. That's what we were there for, and we were not disappointed. What I hadn't realized was that, given the tight dimensions of the square around the monument, the fireworks would be really really close. Michael and Bill estimated that we were perhaps 80 feet away. (It seemed like less, to me.) We were enveloped in enormous clouds of smoke, and ashes floated down onto our coats. Most of the fireworks were the kind that shoot up from the ground, rather than the kind that go high in the air and then explode - increasing the dramatic sense of immediacy. There were even brilliant, long-burning fountains of fire shooting up directly from the street.
My favorite aspect of the entire display involved some lucky positioning. We were standing just behind the dramatic statue of Lafayette on a rearing horse. So as the booms and flashes and clouds of smoke billowed around us, we could see the dark silhouette of a rider emerging from them. It felt a little bit like being in the middle of a supernatural battle.
Cooool. And totally worth the cold.
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Date: 2006-12-08 06:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-08 06:51 pm (UTC)Did you have a babysitter for Alex, or is she just more cool with fireworks than most kids that age?
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Date: 2006-12-08 07:08 pm (UTC)She was remarkably brave. We talked in advance about how there were going to be loud noises, and kept reminding her during the display. ("Wow, fireworks! Fireworks make a loud noise," said in a cheerful voice.) A few times she had a facial expression like, "I'm not sure what to think of this," but mostly she enjoyed herself.
But yeah, it was pretty intense for her first display. Some of the adults around us were flinching.