A city that takes its fireworks seriously
From up here on Mary Anne's roof, at 11 p.m. on July 3rd, I can see two extensive neighborhood fireworks displays (more than a dozen rockets each just in the ten minutes I've watched), one of which is quite close. (Sadly for me, the closest one tends to prefer noise to pretty colors.) Then there are at least five others in the middle distance that have sent up one to five rockets apiece (or so). And bits of a display off in the downtown direction that may've been the city fireworks over the lake; there was a steady stream of fireworks over there, but I ran downstairs to get a sweater (because it's actually chilly here tonight, for some reason, even though it's Chicago in July) and ran back, and they'd stopped.
I think this has all been going on for a couple of hours. I briefly contemplated going to the city's display, because I think I enjoyed it last time (two years ago), but it ended up feeling like more trouble than it was worth.
So I wandered up to the roof around 11, and have seen lots of fireworks in the past 15 minutes. Still going on, in dribs and drabs. (Added later: the last one I saw was at about 11:40, at which point they were about five minutes apart and I decided to give up and go inside.)
And there'll be more tomorrow. IIrc, on the Fourth two years ago we drove back from seeing Too Much Light, and through the whole half-hour (or so) drive there were fireworks in the sky to the left and the right, in nearly every neighborhood we went through.
So if you like fireworks, Chicago's apparently the place to be on and around the Fourth. Good stuff.