Bear Lake Trip - Day Five - Independence Day

Here we are at the final day of our Bear Lake Trip. We'd left Bear Lake and gone to Pocatello. We've talked about going back to Pocatello for the 4th of July ever since we moved away from Pocatello, and we were finally going to do that. The two years that we lived in Pocatello we celebrated the 4th of July with a parade, a beach party, and a firework show. Twin Falls has never even come close to topping that. So we wanted to go back and do those three things again. When I put together the Bear Lake Trip I realized that stopping in Pocatello for the 4th would be the perfect ending to the trip. As you'll see the day was everything that we'd hoped it would be. 

First of all we have to talk about where we were not staying. We were not staying in a tent. When I'd first planned to go to Pocatello for the 4th of July, I'd considered camping at Scout Mountain or somewhere else near Pocatello. But I'd nixed that idea. Brandon and I used to like moving our campsite each night, but now a days we really only like to set up and take down the tent once. 

Also the first thing we were doing that day was the 4th of July Parade in Old Town Pocatello. I wasn't sure we could get our campsite all packed up in time to get to the parade. 

So I'd decided that we should stay in a hotel. And that was the BEST decision I could make. None of us would have liked camping that night. But we all enjoyed the hotel room. 

Veronica and I were the first ones up. We got dressed and went down to breakfast. We sat at a window that looked across to the hospital. 

Veronica said that was fitting because we were the only two members of our family to go to that hospital. I went there when I was hit by a car and dislocated my knee cap. And Veronica went there when she broke her collar bone. So we took a picture with it. 

Everyone else got up and went down to breakfast after Veronica and I were back. I got things gathered up while they were gone. When everyone else came back we took everything out to the car. And that was the end of being in the hotel - or inside for that matter.. We'd spend the next 15 hours outside again. 

The parade started at 9:30. By this time it was almost 9:00. We drove over to Old Town and parked at the Library. Then we walked a block or two to Main Street. When we'd been driving around Logan on Saturday I'd been surprised by how little I remembered about the layout of that town. I was NOT having that problem with Pocatello. We moved away 4 years ago, but I still remember the layout of the town really well. That was nice. 

Since we were getting to the parade around the time it started I was worried that we would have limited options for where to stand. Thankfully we were able to find some empty curb on the shady side of the street. Here are the kids waiting for the parade to start. 

Lydia had a book to keep her occupied. 

Here's a look up the street.

Brandon and Me.  We were both in really good moods. We have so many good memories of Pocatello. We were really happy to be back here.

We were around the corner from where the parade route came out from the Center Street tunnel. The parade route went around some buildings and then came out on Main Street. So we could hear the parade behind us before we saw it in front of us. Soon it was coming down the street. The kids had emptied out their adventure bags so they could have somewhere to put all the candy that was being handed out.

Here's the trolley. I'd forgotten all about the trolley. We rode this a few times for various events. Gosh Pocatello is fun!

Here's another view down the street. 

And the kids. And check out their patriotic themed clothes. I'd bought the dresses for the girls at Once Upon a Child several months ago and had hung onto them just for this day. Derrick was just wearing his scooby doo shirt. But it was blue so it looks right. 

Veronica showed me the candy and other things she was getting. 

There was the usual assortment of cheap candy like tootie fruities and taffy. But there were some good candies as well. 

The parade ended around 10:30 and we walked over to a new park that is across the street from the Library. This was just finished a few weeks ago. It was really cool to see. (I was also wracking my brain for what used to be here, but I can't think of anything.) We used the bathrooms at the park and the kids played for a bit while Brandon and I came up with what to do next. 

We knew we were going to the Beach Party at the Bannock Reservoir at the Portneuf Wellness Complex, but we were trying to figure out lunch. Our snack supply was still holding strong, but we didn't quite have a meal with us. We decided to go back to Winco and buy things for peanut butter sandwiches. So we did that. I also bought drumstick ice cream cones because I'd promised Charlotte we'd have them at least once on this trip. 

We drove up to the Wellness Complex and had the icecream first because we didn't want it to melt. I assumed we'd also eat the sandwiches, but no one was interested in those at the moment. 

We took our stuff down to the beach and set up the canopy on the grass. 

I took this picture of the whole area on my way back from changing into my swimming suit in the bathroom. We were some of the first people there. By mid afternoon there were a lot more canopies and people. 

Brandon and some of the kids blew up the boat and one of the round floaties. This is how Charlotte walked the boat down. 

Derrick and Veronica were in the water almost as soon as I put sun screen on them. Charlotte and Lydia tried going out in the boat, but it had a little leak. They didn't want to get in the water because they liked how clean they felt after their showers the night before. So they mostly stayed on the beach. 

Brandon also stayed on the beach and took a nap. But I took the floatie out and drifted in the water for a long time. Four years ago I bought those floaties so we could play at this beach. It was my favorite thing to get into the floaty and float around while my kids played in the shallow water. Back then I never really went more than 10 or 15 feet from shore. But that was back when my kids weren't very good swimmers. Now I was able to leave them and float out further. 

Actually, I needed to float out further in order to keep an eye on Derrick. He lost interest in swimming and was walking on the shore. He went out to one of the fishing docks and was talking to other people. I drifted out so I could keep an eye on him. 

After a long time Veronica wanted me to come back closer to her.  So I went back to her. She wanted to get out of the water and I agreed. I'd just keep looking at Derrick every so often. He was a little dot of blue with a super blond head. 

Back and that canopy we had lunch. I made everyone sandwiches. Then I went through our cooler of remaining food and gave everyone a "special snack." This was made up of leftovers of things that we didn't have enough for everyone.  So Charlotte and Lydia got the last two drumstick cones. Veronica got pudding. I got the last rootbeer milk. I don't remember what Brandon or Derrick had, but they had something. 

Here's Veronica drying off and enjoying her pudding. 

Here are Charlotte and Lydia. Unlike on Sunday, the canopy's shade was actually getting used. They stayed under here most of the afternoon. 

I was tired so I took one of the boogie boards and put it in the shade. Then I laid down on it and took a nap. Charlotte was in the boat. Lydia was on a bunch of towels. And Veronica was in the round floaty - we'd moved that to the shade too.  We all just napped and relaxed. 

The Beach Party had a professional DJ playing from 12:00 to 3:00. He was set up at the top of the hill by the bathrooms. When he was done at 3:00 the beach was quiet for a little while, but then the people next to us took over the music for the day. They had a really loud speaker and played a lot of music on that. 

Here's a picture I took after I went to the bathroom. 

Derrick was still out playing on the fishing piers. We'd brought him back to make sure he ate something and had some water, but then we went right back. Brandon went over to check on him and see if he wanted a snack. By this point Derrick had wandered over to a group of people that happened to be from our Twin Falls Ward. I'd seen them earlier, but they hadn't seen me. They were like, "Derrick, what are you doing here?"  

Brandon talked to the people from our ward for a while and then he and Derrick started walking back to our area. Derrick got ahead of Brandon so Brandon started running to catch up to him. He didn't know it, but the people next to us were playing, "Highway to the Danger Zone."  He was running right it sync with the chorus. It was possibly the hottest thing I've ever seen him do. 

By this point both twins were relaxing in the boat. I took a picture of them together. 

And here's Veronica in the floaty which had migrated again.

And here are all three of them. 

We could have stayed at the Wellness Center all evening and eventually moved up to the Soccer Fields to watch the fireworks. That's what we'd done other years. But we were a little tired of our only shade being from the canopy. 

I'd gone through a lot of plans for what we could do to get a break from the sun. I'd thought about going bowling at ISU. But they were closed. Veronica suggested dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe, but they closed at 2:00. So we decided to just get pizza at Little Caesers and go to Centennial Park by our old house.

We cleaned up our area and took down the canopy. It had served us very well during all 5 days on this trip. 

I'd ordered the pizza online, but I'd scheduled it for later than I probably needed to. (We cleaned up faster than anticipated.) So we had some extra time. first we had to go to Winco again. We were nearly out of bottled water and I was nervous about running out. So Brandon went in and bought that. I feel like he bought something else, but I can't remember. Here we are waiting in the car.  

Then we drove around Pocatello a bit. We drove by our old house. (We'd also driven by it on our way to Ross Park the day before and after the parade that morning.) Then we drove out to the kids elementary school. And then we drove to Little Caesars and picked up the pizza. I've had trouble with our Twin Falls Little Caesars on Holidays so I expected our pizza to be late at this location too. But it was ready right on time. I told Brandon and the kids, "Next time we need Pizza in Twin Falls we'll just pick it up in Pocatello. It will be faster that way." Actually I just think that no one thinks about pizza in conjunction with the 4th of July. Most people want to BBQ. 

We drove over to Centennial Park. The place was DESERTED. We found a table in the shade and enjoyed that almost as much as the pizza. 

A few weeks ago we went to a party at a friend's house. They'd served Dad's Rootbeer and the kids had loved it. We decided that's the kind of rootbeer we wanted on the 4th of July. So we bought a case at costco and had it in the car the whole trip. Then I read that the Wellness Complex didn't allow glass bottles.  So we drank the rootbeer with dinner instead of while watching fireworks. 

The kids went over to the playground and played for a long time. Veronica's daycare always called this the Fish Park, but I think we just called it Centennial. 

Here are Charlotte and Lydia on top of the fish. 

The kids figured out how to play a real life version of the "Shocking Game."  The Shocking Game has always been where they pretend to get shocked when they touch their fingers. But thanks to static electricity they could play it for real. Here's a video of a little of this. But it really went on for a long time. 

When the kids were done at the playground we walked over to the suspension bridge. 

I always really liked this bridge. 

Here are the Love Locks. I always meant to do this with Brandon. But we haven't yet. 

The River Vision people have been working hard to make floating the river accessable. There were new signs talking about places to float and where to put in and put out. 

Also signs about safety.

And there was a trail down to the river so getting in and out of the water would be easier. 

The kids had fun throwing rocks into the water. 

Here's Brandon looking all cool.

We knew we needed to get back up to the Wellness Center in order to have a parking spot. So we went there about 7:45. We probably should have been there around 7:30, but we were able to get a parking spot so it was fine. 

We grabbed three of the sleeping bags from the roof top carrier and took those up to the Soccer Fields. We also had more snacks, more water, and glowsticks with us. I brought the boogie boards to because I'd discovered they made really great seats. They are basically just foam so they acted like insulation form the cold ground.  

A wind picked up and things got cold almost as soon as we sat down. So I ended up going back down to the car and getting our travel blankets and some towels to use as blankets. 

The evening was cold, but it was NOTHING like 4 years ago when the temperature dropped nearly 50 degrees and everyone was freezing. This time after the wind died down the night was actually really nice. 

As soon as the sun set we pulled out the glow sticks. Oh it was tape! Tape was the other thing Brandon bought on that second winco trip. The kids wanted to tape glowsticks to themselves. So he'd bought tape. 

Here they are working on taping the glowsticks on. This kept them occupied for a long time. 

Here I am with my glowsticks. 

The girls had Derrick lay flat on the ground with his arms outstretched so they could tape the glowsticks to him. 

Here's the final result. The kids looked so cool. 

And then they immediately sat down and huddled under blankets so the effect was kind of lost. 

There had been a drone show advertised but I guess it was too windy for that because it didn't happen. That's okay though because we were really there for the fireworks. And they did not disappoint. 

Parades and Beach Parties are cool and all, but it was the fireworks that had us wanted to come back to Pocatello. The unique thing about Pocatello's firework show is the location. The Wellness Center basically has a terrace system. The Soccer Fields where you watch the fireworks are about 50 feet above the Fairgrounds where they shoot off the fireworks. So the fireworks explode in front of you instead of above you. The effect is really cool and makes the show awesome. 

And this year was better than ever. We were oohhing and aahing at all the different effects. 

I wasn't going to film the show. Like who really goes back and watching firework videos? But right before the finally the fireworks were so intense I felt like they were getting closer and closer. That was such a cool effect I figured I better film the finale. So here you go. You can hear Veronica yelling, "I'm going to die!"  That's about how we all felt. I was sitting there with my mouth wide open and laughing like a crazy person. 

Derrick has never actually seen the Pocatello Fireworks before. He would fall asleep every year right before the show started. (Which was an improvement from the years he went catatonic as soon as we got around a crowd of people.)  So he was SUPER overstimulated by the time the show was over. 

He wanted to run over to the fence and look down at the place where the fireworks had been shot off. But Brandon and I were worried about loosing him in the dark. We needed to stay together as a group. But Derrick was really upset by that. So he was yelling a lot and crying by the time we did walk over to the fence. 

The sight below was really eerie. There were lots of little fires. I guess they just let the cardboard tube that hold the explosives burn themselves out? I don't know. But it was cool to see. 

We walked down to our car, but we knew we weren't getting out of there anytime soon. Brandon repacked the sleeping bags in the top of the car. Everyone used the bathroom. The kids wanted to start driving, but we pointed to the lines of cars all around us and said that we could either sit here or sit in line. 

There was a guy in a razor with a really loud sound system. He was BLASTING music. His razor was behind us for at least 20 minutes. The line of cars he was in hardly moved at all.  We were all pretty happy when he finally inched away from us. 

Derrick was still pretty volatile so he got the front passengers seat. I sat in the middle. Lydia was next to me and Charlotte and Veronica were in the back. I read to The Hobbit to the kids, but soon they were all asleep.  

I think we were finally able to get out of the parking lot close to midnight. Which is so crazy when you know that the fireworks started at 10:10. The show had lasted maybe 20 minutes and we'd made it back to the car around 11:00 so we were just sitting there for an hour. But it had been worth it. 

Brandon drove us back to Twin Falls. Derrick had been asleep, but he woke up and would occationally ask Brandon when we'd be home. Brandon kept telling him we'd be home at 1:30. And true to his word we pulled into the driveway at 1:32.

We all got out of the car and went straight to the house. There was really nothing in the car that needed to come in until the next day. We'd eaten through all our cooler food. Actually the only food left was a box of crackers we'd never opened. 

Brandon and made sure all the kids were in bed and then went right to bed too. I fell asleep so fast. 

I had no memory of Brandon waking up for work. I have no idea how he got up and made it to work at 5:30, but he did. (He was also super tired all day.)

I also had to go to work. I'd had high hopes of going in around 7:00. But I think I made it there closer to 9:00. 

I was smart enough to not schedule anything for the kids for Wednesday. 

But we can talk about all of that later. What's important now is that we had a fabulous time celebrating Independence Day in Pocatello. I'm glad we were finally able to make that happen. 

And that's the end of our 5 day trip to Bear Lake with a little trip to Pocatello added on for fun. 

Thanks for reading.