Rain, Fireworks, and 100,000 visits.

It's rained twice in the past week. This is the first rain at PFHQ proper in a long time. You can practically watch the grass green up. Both of these rains were nice steady soakers, so we are grateful.

The drought is slowly crumbling apart which is a very good thing. The nice thing about a drought is the absence of mosquitoes. I can't remember the last time I had to swat one.

Last night, after the rains abated, we rode out to Cedar Key to watch the fireworks. The sky had cleared, but the wind off the Gulf was brisk. I think the day of rainy weather kept the crowds down, so it was especially pleasant.

We usually stay home on the 4th and do our own pyrotechnic extravaganza, so this was a nice change. I didn't have to spend the day BBQ'ing or frying wings for once, so I found it especially relaxing.

From Cedar Key, we could simultaneously watch the Cedar Key fireworks while watching the fireworks of Crystal River, miles south of us across Waccasassa Bay. That was neat.

This little boy's family must have spent a fortune on fireworks. Whenever the official show paused, we turned and watched them as they had a seemingly endless supply of flashy, sparkly, noisy stuff. They were having a great time and the Mom in charge was a pretty good safety manager.

When we finally left, they were still going at it and had just brought out another giant box of fireworks to open. You know the kind, a four foot long collection of spark spewing goodies. I know that assortment cost over $100, because I had looked at it in the store last week.

There were private fireworks going off all around us, and we did a lot of swivel-necking to take it all in.

It's illegal in Florida to use any fireworks that fly or explode, so technically the COOLEST fireworks would seem to be unavailable to pyros such as moi.

However, you can buy anything short of a Stinger missle at any fireworks tent. You just have to sign a disclaimer form that says you understand they aren't legal in Florida and that you won't use them here... blah, blah, blah.

Yeah, right.

At least we don't have to smuggle them in from South Carolina or Mississippi anymore.

Looks like Pure Florida hosted it's 100,000th visitor sometime yesterday.

I believe it was Pablo.