The First of Many Treasure Hunts

Last Saturday promised to be a rather sad day, as I was leaving the fam and the comforts of home to head back to Grand Rapids and school. (Not that G.R. and school are bad, I'd just had a LOT of fun over the break!) I got back to my apartment, unloaded, then decided to go get some groceries before settling in to unpack. When I was leaving the Family Fare, I heard booms in the distance. I had an internal dialogue that went something like this:

"Yikes! I hope no one just got shot. Actually, it sounds like fireworks. Nah, it's January, and not a holiday. Why would there be fireworks? Probably a car backfiring. Or more like a lot of cars backfiring at once. Boy, I hope those bananas ripen up quick. Maybe I'll stop by Taco Bell after all."

When I got in my car and pulled out onto the road, off in the distance I saw them: it was fireworks! I immediately set off to search for the source. I figured that the most logical place for fireworks to go off would be right downtown over the river, so I headed in that direction. I tried to keep the fireworks in sight, and would lose them occasionally behind trees or buildings. I knew I was getting close when I saw people running in the direction of the river.

After a few minutes, I ended up on Pearl Street, stopped in a line of cars on one of the bridges over the Grand River. We were parked very illegally, but no one seemed to care. The fireworks were being set off on a parallel bridge (Michigan Street), so I had a perfect view! I opened up my sun roof, pulled out my camera, and got a few cool videos. It was fun to hear the cheering and see all of the people lined up on the bridge and along the cold river.

I had a silly grin on my face for quite some time after I drove away after the big finale (see video below). I must say, my resolution to find treasure certainly was met in spades! I think my next resolution is going to be to win a million dollars...

(A couple of things about the video: It gets cooler about half-way through; I love that the No Parking sign is clearly visible throughout; about 2/3 of the way through, it gets REALLY loud - my car was shaking quite a bit at that point!; I also love to hear the cheering at the end. Enjoy! And Happy January!)