A Montana 4th of July

I started out the 4th with a run. Bozeman had many trails that wound through the neighborhoods, luckily one went right by the place Matt was subletting. I took off to do 4 miles for the 4th (ended up with 4.5) and discovered it is a lot harder to breath at almost 5,000 feet than at sea level in DC.  

After cleaning up a bit we headed to a children's bike parade and picked up some flags for our bikes.

kids decorating their bikes

my patriotic outfit. I made the shirt several years ago and thought I'd get another 4th out of it

Matt on his patriotic bike

After the parade we poked around downtown for awhile, ate bison burgers, had coffee, biked to the local lake, discovered many local establishments were closed for the fourth, and went back to the apartment to prepare for the evening.

Around seven we biked over to the fairgrounds for the Bozeman Symphony and fireworks. Only thing is Bozeman doesn't get dark till after 10 PM. There wasn't much going on in the fairgrounds except a Lions Club BBQ. However Matt was able to finagle ice cream, brownies, and apple pie for a small fee and we got to enjoy a beautiful sunset.

the Symphony was quite good, even played some Johnny Cash

we snuck into the arena for a few shots

I'm a little sad I won't be there for the county fair

The fireworks did not disappoint. Twenty minutes of fireworks against a pitch black sky.