Everyone Loves a Parade

Being that today is the Fourth of July, the girls and I took the 8:20 ferry off the Island so we could attend the Bar Harbor Fourth of July Parade. I was informed by my sister Cherie about the parade, and it seemed like a fun activity. So, the girls and I met Cherie, Micheal, and Annabel in Bar Harbor. They are fortunate enough to have some friends who own a restaurant along the parade route and had staked out a view spot. They didn't seem to mind that we wormed our way in to their location.

The parade is put on by the Shiners. It is a really well done parade complete, of course, with a lot of small Shriner cars racing about. As a parent I was also thrilled that a lot of the "floats" were tossing candy/ trinkets to the kids and my kids got some! The last parade I took them too was the Mardi Gras parade in Burlington. The competition for the beads is so intense Chloe dissolved into tears. I think all of us involved in that outing were in need of some type of therapy to get over it. So needless to say it is nice when there is enough to go around.

After the parade and lunch we ventured over to the baseball field and checked out the seafood festival. The girls enjoyed the bouncy house. The best fundraiser by far was the car painting. Someone had driven their Chevrolet Cavalier onto a big tarp. The kids each purchased a cup of paint for .50 (complete with use of brush and smock) and went over to paint the car. It was great! The paint was poster paint with dish detergent mixed in and whenever the car got too covered they would bring a soapy rag over and clean a section off. The kids would start all over again. It was a great idea and they were all so into it. It was kind of hypnotic to watch.

I especially enjoyed listening to the announcer describe the "play by play" of the lobster races. They would race four lobsters at a time. Different businesses brought a lobster to race and people placed bets on them. It was hysterical, and it was all done to raise money for the Bar Harbor YWCA. It all had a very homey small town America feel to it.