pittsburgh's 250th birthday

pittsburgh really knows how to celebrate a birthday - by blowing stuff up! on saturday night, pittsburgh celebrated it's 250th birthday with perhaps the largest fireworks display in US history. fireworks were set off from 17 different locations including the tops of skyscrapers, barges in all three rivers, and bridges. i had planned on watching the display from the building where my lab is, right along the monongahela next to the hot metal bridge, however by 10pm when they were set to start, i was exhausted and decided to stay home and watch them with peter from the upstairs at our house. even from 3 miles away and through a tree, they were amazing to watch. they lasted about 30 minutes, and were synched to music which we unfortunately did not hear. it was really weird to see the flashes of light and not hear the "booms" until significantly later. we really enjoyed the show! i took a few pictures with my "little" camera. they're not good by any stretch of the imagination, but they give you an idea of our perspective:


this last one shows the fireworks being launched from the tops of several buildings: