It is the big weekend here in Birch Bay. I made a quick trip to our local market yesterday afternoon and endured a long line of cars atypical for our little town. Once I got into the parking lot, I had to look carefully for a parking place. This is not common for us. Usually I park at the edge of the lot where there are a lot of empty spaces. Even the electric vehicle charging stations at the store were full. As I walked into the grocery store, I noticed that the pile of watermelons was larger than usual. I also noticed that the price was 50 cents per pound higher than Memorial Day. This is a weekend when local merchants need to take advantage of the crowds and plan ahead for leaner times that will come in the winter when there are a lot fewer tourists in town.

At the edge of the parking lot there were large tents set up and I could see people milling around them. They were selling fireworks in the tent. the market is located at the first exit from Interstate 5 in the United States. There is a ramp where north-bound traffic can exit and south bound traffic can enter between our exit and the border, but ours is the first opportunity for those on the Interstate coming from Canada to exit.

People who know their way around our area know that the biggest fireworks stands are three more exits down the road at the Lumi Nation, but if you are heading south in search of fireworks, you might be tempted to stop at he first fireworks stand you see. It isn’t that fireworks are not for sale in Canada. They are. It is just that it is easier to purchase fireworks on the same side of the border crossing that you intend to use them.

This weekend is a day for fireworks on both sides of the border - well that is if you count Monday and Tuesday as part of the weekend, which quite a few people are doing this year. Our neighbors to the north celebrate Canada Day today. Typical celebrations include fireworks, parades, barbecues, concerts, carnivals, fairs, and picnics. It is about the same way that we celebrate the 4th of July with our own fireworks, parades, barbecues, concerts, carnivals, fairs, and picnics. The cottages and condos at the beach are filled with a pretty even mix of folks from both sides of the border. Even the empty lots in town have recreational vehicles parked and are adorned with flags.

Canada Day, formerly known as Dominion Day is the national day of Canada. It is a federal holiday that celebrates the anniversary of the Canadian Confederation, which was recognized by official ceremony on July 1, 1867. Those of us on the south side of the border have pretty much been celebrating July 4 since 1776. It is such an entrenched holiday around here that almost every advertisement for celebrations uses the term “old fashioned.”

The communities of Blaine and Birch Bay both have ads in the local paper for their “Old Fashioned 4th of July” festivities. I’ve looked around a bit in our area and you can check it out where you live, but none of the communities around here are having a “new fangled” 4th of July. I haven’t even seen any “moderately innovative” 4th of July festivities and “brand new” is definitely out of the question.

The menu for the festivities seems to be mostly hot dogs, burgers, watermelon and ice cream with a few salads tossed in for effect. That and a lot of beer. Our neighbors across the back fence were having an animated discussion of beer in their planning for their party last week. We don’t mean to be eavesdropping but they are a bit loud and sometimes it isn’t possible to be in our back yard without overhearing their conversations. I guess they had to endure our festivities a couple of weeks ago when we hosted a brunch in our yard, so turnabout it fair play. I’m fairly confident that our celebration had more children than theirs will have. And children can be loud.

I have enjoyed some spectacular fireworks displays in my life and I still enjoy watching them. We don’t have definite plans in place, but we may drive up to Blaine to watch the fireworks over Drayton Harbor. We could also just walk down to the beach here and have a look. The bay is pretty with campfires ringing the water and fireworks dotting the night sky. The advantage to driving north is that those fireworks are professionally executed. Around our little bay the fireworks are strictly amateur. On the other hand we have a few amateurs who really get into their displays and who obviously have spent a significant amount of money at the fireworks stands.

I’m not much into lighting fireworks myself. While I enjoy the bursts of light and color in the night sky, I’m a bit too frugal to take a match to a purchase in which I’ve invested my money. I just don’t get enough pleasure from the experience to want to spend money at the fireworks stand. I didn’t even buy watermelon at the store because I enjoy having a bit of my money in my pocket. I’ll wait until the price drops - and it will drop next week for sure.

It is a good thing that I don’t have a busy week at work because I’m pretty sure that things will be fairly noisy at my usual bedtime for a few days. With the Canadian holiday today and the American holiday on Tuesday, there are bound to be people touching matches to fuses all around the bay for the next few nights. Add in generous amounts of beer and there will probably be a few sirens joining the cacophony as well.

Across both nations, I suspect that celebrations will be a bit muted this year due to the smoke from all of the wildfires in Canada. It’s hard to look at fireworks when the skies are already filled with smoke. We probably will have some of the best air quality in both nations this weekend with gentle onshore winds carrying our smoke off to the east.

I hope that whatever holiday you are celebrating, you find a way to do so safely. We’ll be having a blast here in the northwest corner of the US. I think we’ll start with hot dogs for supper tonight. That menu is generally a hit with our grandchildren.