Asks Gooner in the forum, “With a young one at home, we can’t go downtown or even camp out anywhere near Lake Union. So is there anywhere in Ballard that has a decent view (albeit far away) of the fireworks?”
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11 responses so far ↓
1 joe // Jul 4, 2008 at 3:45 pm
hmm. i don’t know if you can see over Magnolia or over Queen Anne. maybe a few bursts here and there. what about going to Magnolia and looking over the bay? or somewhere in Wallingford?
2 christian // Jul 4, 2008 at 5:01 pm
you can get a pretty good view of the uppermost reaches of the fireworks from atop the parking garage at swedish in ballard. there’s always a fair number of people camped out up there. won’t see much of the lower explosions, but the big stuff in the air is pretty impressive from there.
3 MaryWit // Jul 4, 2008 at 7:22 pm
What about Sunset Park above Golden Gardens, if you can’t get to lower Golden Gardens?
4 Eric // Jul 4, 2008 at 7:55 pm
There are plenty of places in sunset hill/crown hill that can peak over queen anne enough to see the needle. Sunset Park probably has okay visibility if there aren’t too many trees in the south end obstructing the view.
5 gooner // Jul 4, 2008 at 8:13 pm
can you see the elliot bay fireworks from golden gardens?
i have always done the lake union ones and didn’t really know exactly where the elliot bay fireworks are visable from.
6 joe // Jul 4, 2008 at 9:36 pm
turns out there was a fair amount of fireworks people were shooting off at golden gardens. don’t know how much was legal.
7 Galapagos Jim // Jul 4, 2008 at 10:26 pm
The sidewalk on the north side of the Ballard High School athletic field isn’t a bad place. Dragged my deck chairs down the street there last year.
8 T // Jul 5, 2008 at 12:25 am
Yeah, our house on sunset hill, but I’m not sure we want to invite everyone over. ;-)
Years ago we used to go hang out at Adobe (Fremont) but I hear that’s restricted now.
9 silver // Jul 5, 2008 at 7:44 am
I watched from the hill above Gasworks, and it was nice to be able to hear the accompanying music. It seemed like a lot of the really amazing effects were close to the waterline and obscured from view by the trees.
It was a lovely bike ride home though. No gridlock!
Next year I’d like to watch from Gasworks, proper. I’ll ride my bike again, and head out earlier.
If you were watching from Gasworks last night, I’d love your advice - what time does one need to arrive? What should I bring? Was it worth it? Was it safe? Were there a lot of drunks setting off their own fireworks?
10 Sarah E // Jul 5, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Silver,
Gasworks is definitely the best place to view the fireworks from. And, the WAMU sponsored display on L. Union is the best, in my opinion.
You can park at the Ballard Fred Meyer and hop on the BG trail with your bike. Lock it up outside the park, though, because I don’t think you can take it inside- that’s what I’ve always done. I generally head down around 9:00pm, but plan on standing for the duration of the display if you go that late. To get a comfortable spot on the grass, you have to lay claim to it in early afternoon. However, no matter how early you get there, plan on being stepped-on, fallen-on, and pushed around a little bit- all with a good nature, of course. It’s just part and parcel of being in a large crowd. As citywide community events go, I have always found the crowd to be fairly sane- not entirely sober though. Other than seeing a few drunk, loud, obnoxious young people, I’ve never witnessed anything heinous at this event.
As for the illegal fireworks, it simply amazes me that people choose to disobey the law. There’s a good reason why fireworks are illegal within the city limits. Just ask the fire department why.
Also, there is an overpass on Aurora that I’ve always seen a lot of people standing on (around 34th?), but I think that would get pretty crowded.
Good luck next year!
11 silver // Jul 6, 2008 at 12:40 pm
Thank you, Sarah! That was exactly the sort of information I was hoping for.
As far as the illegal fireworks thing - I think it’s a combination of phallic compensation, “It go BOOM! Heh heh.”, and “Hold my beer and watch this!”
If only they would blow themselves up before they breed.
- S
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