The 4th of July: Petersburg style

When planning this thing my Mom asked what were the most important things that I wanted to do/see on this vacation. Since I witnessed the festivities on the 4th last time I was in Petersburg 6 years ago. Those were definitely on the list. They did not disappoint, they were better partly cause I participated in them this time, and partly cause we had the loudest cheering section in the whole town.

Side Note Inserted Here: This is also something that G&G would greatly approve of. The family reunions of yore had races and competitions all of the time. So this was just like them. We had at least one Bringhurst in every event and we cleaned up hard core!

It was a celebration that lasted Saturday and Sunday, and it started with the Blindfold Boat Race. The rower is blindfolded and then the other one tells them where to go. In all cases the rower was older and the director was a kid, which made for great entertainment. They have to row out to the dock and then row back. This is the battle of the Jenny's.

This is Ryan and Beckett (age 5) and Wendell and Garrett (age 3). I think this was the best heat personally. They just went in circles and ran into each other the whole time. Then when you thought they were good and it was over, we almost lost Wendell at sea. Overall Jordan and Breanna came in 2nd.

Here is part of the cheering section that I was talking about. Aunt Kay and Hannah. Aunt Kay had the biggest win, I will fill you in on that part later.

Next up is the Tote Race. They had the 4 man competition and the 2 man. These are the totes that they use at the canneries for the fish, and they are not very stable in the water. This is Cousins Lauren, Jordan, Naoki, and Wendell. They came in 2nd....out of 2 teams.

Here is Jackie and my Dad in the 2 man. They came in 2nd place.

Here is the team that came in 1st place with a minute of 1:34. They killed it....WAIT....is that me! (how do you like the smoothness of that one). That is right Jeff and I killed it! I don't remember if it was Justin and Tierney, or Ryan and Juliet that got 3rd, but it was a Bringhurst swept this competition (which technically wasn't hard cause we were the only ones in the 2 man).

This is the competition part of me coming out. I watched the replay on my Mom's camera. The tell-all sign that I am competitive is written all over my face. You can't see in this picture, but in the video it is sheer determination.

Here are the 1st place finishers with the medals. They actually say 2010 Petersburg Tote Race Winners. It was cool!

The next day was the Parade. Which we entered cause we had an awesome sign made for the reunion so we thought we might as well use it. It said, 'Bringhurst Family Reunion 2010: Getting together just for the Halibut'.

Uncle Ron was our leader; our Grand Marshall if you will. He lead the way with the Umbrella and did awesome baton like tricks and led us in our song. That went something like this "The Bringhurst family, Branches of our family tree". Over and Over and Over again.

Here is the group. We actually won 2 place and got $50 for it. Probably cause we were singing, or maybe it was just Uncle Ron's sweet Umbrella twirling skills.

I didn't get pictures of all the races., but they had street races for all of the kids and they all won small cash prizes. It was pretty cool, I think that all of them won something. Ryan got 1st in the 12 and over sprint, and by 1st place I mean he was at the finish line by the time everyone else started.

Also the big kids did an almost 5k running and walking. The Jenny's strut their stuff and got medals in the walking portion. Ryan got 2nd overall, 1st in his age group. Wendell got 4th overall. My dad got 3rd in the old people group. They all got medals.

Then there was other stuff like the water ballon toss and the egg toss. I didn't see much of this one so I am not sure how well we did in those.

This here is the a duck race course. You could sponsor a rubber duck for $10 and they raced them down this track. There was a fire-hose going at the top to help them down the hill. 20 ducks in a heat the winner got $20. Aunt Kay won her heat, and Aunt Patty and Lauren won their heat. Then the winners all raced and Aunt Kay won $1000!!! When we found her and told her (by running into the store they were eating in screaming, she didn't believe us), but she did and it was awesome.

This is the 4x2x4. There were a ton of people in this contest, mostly cannery workers. It was funny cause everybody fell. It was a battle against family in this heat. Ryan, Me, Tierney, and Jordan. Against Justin, Lauren, My Dad, and Uncle Ron.

This is us in good form.

This is them in not so good form. They fell halfway through and they fell right were they had just done the egg toss. It was funny. My team fell across the finish line and took 3rd place! We were like 4 seconds behind the 1st place person so it was a close one.

This is a few people from our cheering section. The Log Roll brought out the biggest turnout crowd-wise. There were tons. I was dead set on doing it earlier, but I almost chickened out when I saw all the people. I still did it though. I regretted it when I didn't do it 6 years ago. So I had to.

We got there right before it started to sign up and the lady that had been in charge of all the events was like 'I was wondering when the Bringhurst's were going to show up, I was starting to get really worried". Never fear the Bringhurst's are here!

They had maybe like 12 in the mens heat and 8 in the women's. Justin was the victor of this round, which was satisfying cause the guy in the water was talking serious smack. Justin went on to get 2nd in the Mens.

Jeff wasn't planning on participating in this event, but when he showed up he fell into peer pressure. Since there was not a plan earlier he went out in long johns. Which was Great! That Jeff has style. Sadly he lost out in the 1st round to the 'Black Simba' (Preston and Autum made everyone nicknames).

Here is Wendell and his signature move, he did it after he demolished all of his opponents (except one). He took 1st in the Men's but lost to the Women's winner (the reigning champion).

Here is the 1st round for the ladies. That is Tierney and Me.

As you can see from the close up it was a tie. Yup I just got dunked in the freezing cold ocean and it was a tie and we had to go again.

This is the 2nd time around and at this point Tierney just fell in and almost broke her back while I am still standing on the log right before my 2nd dunk.

Lauren in the 1st round lost to 'Purple Spandex'.

Here I am in the 2nd round going down to the reigning champion. That not even Wendell could beat. I actually remember her from 6 years ago cause she won and she never got wet. She just took down her opponents and then waited for them to spear the log and bring her back in to the dock. So this was my 3rd dunk and I take pride in the fact that right after my fall she went in. I at least got the champion wet.

It actually ended up that the girl that was suppose to go against Purple Spandex didn't show up for the 2nd round so they decided to have me go against her. I was up by the woman organizing it who had the idea, she radioed the announcer, and he asked that crowd if I should get a chance to go again. Which they apparently liked cause they were chanting my name. So I went against her and I lost again, so my 4th dunk. It did however put me into 3rd place.

And I won $8. I like the fact that you can tell I am FREEZING in this picture.

I feel like it is my duty to mention, since my Dad is a Statistician, that I placed in 4 of the 4 things I participated in (if you count the parade) that ain't too bad.

After a warm shower and a nice dinner, we headed out to the fireworks that were really awesome and really fun to be with all the family.

That is the end of this Celebration. Moving on the 'Juneau on the way out'.