Celebrating With Friends - Part 2

We awoke bright and early on the morning of July 4th bubbling with excitement about participating in the annual Copper Harbor Independence Day Parade. The first order of business was to decorate our float - better known as our golf cart.

Yes, I know Wannabes should have had just one "e." I didn't notice that I spelled it wrong when I ordered that personalized banner. Since we plan to use the banner every year, it's going to stay that way. I'm not sure anyone really cares that I spelled it wrong anyway. Wannabe is really a slang term - a phonetic shortening of want to be. The banner means we aspire to be Yoopers - an unattainable goal, since we were not born in the U.P. One of the locals once told Steve that we could consider ourselves Yooper Wannabes after we survived 2 Keweenaw winters. That explains the sign we put on the back of the golf cart.

Marty and Donna helped us decorate the golf cart. That last shot was the only photo I managed to take of them the whole week, and I only got half of Donna! Anyway, Steve and I hopped on the golf cart, lined up on 10th Street and waited for the parade to begin at 10:00 a.m. 

Here we come!

There we go!

We handed out 75 "God Bless America" mini flags to the kids, but we could have easily handed out 4-5 times that many. We'll be better prepared next year. The crowd looks pretty light where all these parade photos were snapped at the main intersection in Copper Harbor. The crowd was thicker as we traveled further down the street.

When you watch the parade, it takes 6 or 7 minutes. When you're in the parade, it takes about an hour and 5 minutes. We had no idea that the parade route was going to travel from 10th Street, down Hwy 41 through Copper Harbor, through the Lake Fanny Hooe Resort and Campground, and through both campgrounds at Fort Wilkins State Park. That was a round trip of about 5-1/2 miles. We were glad our golf cart batteries had a full charge!

More parade photos from Marty:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Steve thought his parade days were over after his boys were finished with Boy Scouts. Little did he know. We both thoroughly enjoyed our parade experience and already have more ideas for next year.

Stay tuned for Part 3 of Celebrating With Friends. All is well in the Keweenaw.