Yesterday we drove to Windsor to see the big fireworks show over the Detroit River. My sister- and brother-in-law got a room on the 14th floor of one of the hotels downtown and they invited us to watch the fireworks with them. What an experience! The Windsor/Detroit fireworks are always a great show–it’s the biggest and best display of fireworks I’ve ever seen. They shoot them off from three barges in the middle of the river. Most of the fireworks are the old stand-bys, but every year they manage to add something I’ve never seen before. Watching them from the hotel room was great. It was air conditioned, no bugs, no one smoking nearby (I hate second-hand smoke!), and nothing to block our view since we were so high up.
The City of Windsor found sponsors (Zehrs grocery stores being the main sponsor) to pay for free shuttle bus service between the two malls and downtown. We went with Don’s mom and step-dad to one of the malls and caught the bus. The shuttle service was very well-organized. They had lots of buses running constantly back and forth, fences and signs to direct people into the right lines for the return trip, and police controlling about a dozen intersections to stop traffic and let the buses go through. While we did have to wait in line for a while to get on a bus afterwards, they did an impressive job of moving a LOT of people very quickly.
While it entails a considerable amount of driving time to/from Windsor and travel time to/from downtown for about a half-hour event, this is the stuff memories are made of. Peter enjoyed the bus rides as well as the fireworks. He stayed up WAY past his bedtime and we’re paying for it today, but it was worth it.
