Watching the Fireworks in Marin

With babies and small children, the ritual of watching 4th of July fireworks becomes a little, well, inconvenient. Often they're scared of the noise (if you're close enough to hear, that is), or they're up way past their bedtime or, even worse, woken up from a deep sleep. Nothing's quite as crabby and grumpy as an overtired toddler or preschooler, no matter how great the promised fireworks are.

With this in mind, we've sought out places to watch the fireworks at the Marin County Fair that don't involve straying away from the car, because there of the two sleeping occupants. The Marin County Fair's fireworks used to be kind of weak, but the last couple of displays we've seen have been really impressive. Obviously you can just pay your $12 and go to the fair, but again, if you've got two sleeping children in the car, this isn't really going to work. On a friend's suggestion, we checked out a spot at the Unitarian Universalist Church parking lot, which is up on Channing Way, off Professional Center Parkway in Terra Linda, and overlooks the Marin County Fairgrounds. This wasn't bad, but the number of places where you could actually see anything was pretty limited. Those people who could find a spot where they could see through the trees were treated to a spectacular view, though. Needless to say this was a pretty popular spot, since there were lots of people up there.

Last year we tried a new tactic, and headed out to McInnis park, where you could get a fairly clean line of sight across the marsh area to the fairgrounds. Actually, it afforded a direct view to where they were setting off the fireworks, so it really is a good place to go. There's a small parking lot near the main entrance to the park that's an ideal place to park. It's just south of the main part of the park, near baseball and soccer fields and the kayak and canoe launching spot. If you can leave your car and want to hike out closer to the creek, you can get an even better view of the fireworks display. There were a few people here who obviously had the same idea, but it was far from crowded. Of course if you live or had friends in Santa Venetia (AKA Lower Skabo) close the Civic Center, then that would be even better.

Families in southern Marin might want to make the effort to see San Francisco's fireworks display, which is usually guaranteed to be spectacular, except when it's foggy, which it often in in July. We've watched fireworks from Fort Baker near the Bay Area Discovery Museum, which afforded a pretty good view, but was also pretty crowded. Of course the absolute best viewing spot is from a boat on San Francisco Bay, but that's cold, and of course requirea a boat.

Actually, our all time favorite fireworks display is put on by the city of Sonoma, where we actually lived for a short time. There's a really nice home-town feel about the whole thing, and they put on a really superb show. When the kids get a little older we'll definitely go back up there. The only drawback is its popularity. It's great if you have friends or family within walking distance of the field near Vallejo's house, but if you drive there the traffic jam of people trying to head back out of town is pretty awful.

If you have a favorite fireworks display in the Bay Area, or a favorite spot from which to take in the San Francisco or Marin County Fair fireworks, share it with us by leaving a comment. (You'll need to register to leave comments, but it's free and painless... we promise!)