You are thinking – fireworks, shmireworks. From our estimation, the lighthouse fireworks were not the best fireworks show we have seen. We have been to some places, such as Washington, D.C. and Disney World, that have truly spectacular fireworks shows. It was unique, and it is worth doing at least once.

Part of what makes it unique is that you are sitting offshore, and it looks like 50% of the Lorain population spent $10,000 each to buy fireworks to set off. All along the coast, in a 180 degree arc, people are setting of fireworks displays to rival most small town shows. We counted at least a dozen different locations setting them off. This all starts about thirty to sixty minutes before the official fireworks, so you finish your dinner and watch the pre-show fireworks.

We also had the surprise of a cargo ship, the Algoma Innovator. They announced that one was coming through, but not that it would be passing about 50 feet from the lighthouse and heading up the Black River. We saw the draw bridge and train bridge in the raised position. Sadly, we were not paying enough attention to see it raise, but we did get pictures of the cargo ship going up the river in the distance. It appears in this video approaching the mount of the Black River.

If you look closely at the photos, you can the the bridge of the ship passing through the drawbridge. That is not a giant white building; it is the ship. The left picture has the front structure of the ship passing through, which is the ships bridge. The right picture has the larger back structure passing through, which is the aft deck house and smokestack.

The rest of the pictures are just going to be a grid of fireworks pictures and videos in roughly time order. Many of the tiny fireworks below the main fireworks display are private fireworks in the town behind the pier.

At this point, the camera was turned vertical because the fireworks were going off the top of the frame and zooming out leaves too much blank space on the sides. (At least on PC browsers, the default video widget for WordPress zooms in on vertical videos to make them horizontal, so only the middle of the video is visible. The change we made appeared to fix it, but let us know if you see an issue.)

If you did not notice, there are five videos in the horizontal sections and and four videos in the vertical sections. Look for the white triangle. The finale video is a bit large, so it might take longer to load.