If fireworks really turn you on, come to the San Juan Islands for the Fourth of July next year. You could get a preview of what is in store on the night of the third with a visit to Deer Harbor. Their display is as big and as long as the amount of money they can raise from local residents and volunteers, usually about $10,000 worth of loud noise. And, if you are on a boat that anchors near the fireworks barge, it’s really loud.
Every year on a night that Eastsound, Friday Harbor and Lopez don’t hold their celebrations Deer Harbor has theirs. Annually, I make the comment to anyone within hearing range, “Having been in the Navy, I’m sure grateful for all who served in a muddy foxhole somewhere in Europe or on a beach in the Pacific during World War II and prevailed until we had our freedom.”
On the night of the Fourth, you can have your choice of elaborate fireworks at either Eastsound on Orcas Island, Roche Harbor or Friday Harbor on San Juan Island or Fisherman’s Bay on Lopez Island. You can tie up in front of the customs dock at Friday Harbor and be up front for a long barrage of noise and pyrotechnics.
At the conclusion of the Friday Harbor blast, you can head toward Lopez and hear the biggest display of them all. There is a group of pyrotechnicrats on Lopez that spend the entire year building their arsenal of spectacular booms. It’s not just a visual display, but an amazing amount of noise.
The accommodations for this spectacular weekend throughout the San Juan Islands are taken months in advance, so make your reservations early. All of the islands have camping space and if you are a hard core camper remember that the islands will be crowded, so if the parks are full just watch the fireworks from your parking place on a quiet road some where and when the sun comes up there are a lot of restaurants that can cook you a Fifth of July omelet.
All the islands have great locally grown parades, but let’s not forget the fifth of July. You need a boat to get to Crane Island for the best fifth or sixth of July parade imaginable.
Of the three couples who are our best friends on Crane Island, Dick and Nancy Clark, are unusual, in the best sense of the word. I’ve written about them before because we have such amazingly funny times with them. They are one of the original buyers at the low price. Nancy was a champion of the Seattle Tennis Club for years and later taught tennis to young people for years. This is why Dick built Nancy the only grass tennis court on Crane Island. They also have the only Bocci ball court.
The tennis court is the perfect place to have the world’s greatest Fourth of July party on the Fifth of July for everyone on the island and their friends. All of the third- and fourth-generation kids can have three-legged races, egg tossing contests, gunny sack races, big boat fender toss and many guests’ favorite: the mongrel dog race. A few of the dogs cross the finish line and just keep on running and the owners spend the rest of the day wandering the island looking for their dogs.
The Crane Island World Famous Fifth of July Parade starts with half a dozen boat loads of Orcas Island, Bell Island and Big Double Island people coming in their boats for the parade. The Fifth of July parade this year had 27 vehicles in it and 114 people joined in the potluck lunch.
Before the parade starts everyone on the island gathers around the leading vehicle, the fire truck and sings the national anthem. Usually it is to the tune of a third-world briefcase (boom box) on someone’s shoulder. No one remembered to charge the batteries, so we sang this year to the melody strummed on a ukulele by someone who just spent a week on the beach at Waikiki.
There are more people in the parade than there are spectators. Anything on Crane Island that has wheels or an engine – a lawnmower, tractor or a bicycle – is in the parade all decorated One girl on a bicycle won that division in the parade because she had more clothes pins and playing cards making more noise than the lawn mower her brother was driving. Doug Rosenberg drove his three-wheel Cushman to victory in the three-wheel division because he was the only vehicle in it.
Mike and Lee Brown drove over from Big Double Island in their landing barge with their combination dump truck-golf cart for the parade.
Several years ago they made the mistake of unloading their landing barge at high tide and had to wait 12 hours for the next tide to get high again so they could back the landing barge off the beach. That year, there were 17 guests on their barge they had brought to the parade and the potluck free lunch. They had to eat leftover lunch cupcakes and popcorn for dinner and did not get back to Double Island until after the tide came back in at 10:02 p.m.
Someone said that next year they are going to hire the antique airplane ride and fly high over all of the fireworks and see if they can take all of them in, during a two-hour flight. They could see Eastsound, Deer Harbor, Roche Harbor, Friday Harbor and Lopez. If you want to really celebrate the Fourth of July week in the best style topped off with a classic Normal Rockwell painting picnic and parade, the San Juan Islands are the place to be next year. Make your plans early and plan on staying late.
Warren Miller is history’s most prolific and enduring ski filmmaker. Visit warrenmiller.net or visit his Facebook page at facebook.com/warrenmiller.
