Independence Day 2009

Independence Day 2009 was one of the best I have had in a while. While I did not shoot off any fireworks, I got to spend the day on a boat on Lake Erie and Cuyahoga River and view the fireworks from right above my head instead of in a car and far away. Usually, I am at home with my family bringing barbecue in and going out to Edgewater Park to enjoy the fireworks from afar. This year, I wanted to do something a little different. I wanted to stay in Cleveland but instead of going to the same spot for the fireworks, I wanted to change the location and the experience. This year, I went with just my sister instead of my parents and my sister.


The plan: we "got away" from the house and stayed in a nearby hotel at a cheap rate for the night. I did not know how wild the night would get so to be safe, we stayed in a hotel. We had a light lunch (I had mussels and my sister had spicy garlic wings). We relaxed a bit in the hotel after eating before we headed to the pier at Voinovich Park to get our tickets for the elongated cruise. The day was nice and there was a nice breeze coming from the lake.


Around 6:00 pm, dinner was served. The dinner was a traditional one: ribs, chicken, cole slaw, beans, and cake. We sat at the table with two other couples to accommodate all incoming passengers. The name of the boat was the Goodtime III, the newest addition to the Goodtime family. The boat was at capacity around 800 passengers. At dinner, the boat was about halfway at capacity but the main deck was the area where everyone was seated for dinner so at felt more crowded at dinner. The boat started to cruise around 6:30 pm and made its way around once to the west and back and then to the east and back.


We left our dinner seat and headed up to our designated deck- the 3rd floor. There, people started to slowly move toward their decks and enjoyed the open air. I saw the daylight turn into dusk and around 8:30 pm, we approach the dock again to pick up the other passengers on the boat who bypassed dinner. This time, the boat was at capacity and it was rather hard to move from one area to the other. The third and fourth decks were at capacity and the lower two decks were packed. The true celebration started even before the fireworks as people were dancing in the aisles and having a good time.


The boat continued to make its cruise through downtown Cleveland and beyond as the darkness overtook the sky. There were many smaller cruises that blocked off certain parts of the lake; as a result, the Goodtime III looped around several times and parked itself in a neutral area where the fireworks could be seen clearly. The fireworks started around 10:00 pm and ended at 10:30 pm. I took pictures of the fireworks but the resolution was not great so I switched to my videocamera and that worked very well. The boat returned to its dock at 11:30 pm and we headed back to the hotel for the night. In the hotel, there was quite the crowd since there were many family reunions happening. There were no stairs (I found the stairs early morning next day) so we had to wait for a while to board the elevator. We left around noon that Sunday and arrived back home in the early afternoon.




























Wishing Everyone a Belated Happy Independence Day,
Hasani Wheat
Class of '10