A Nice End To An Old Year

I mentioned back in November that I wanted to go see the Christmas lights in downtown Omaha.  I decided to combine the Christmas lights with the New Year's fireworks.

Omaha's downtown all lit up for the holidays.

Naturally I picked one of the coldest nights we've had in a while to do this.  The Wife, having just returned from being with her parents for the last week, decided she wanted a quiet and warm evening so I was on my own.

Omaha shoots off fireworks at 7:00 PM on New Year's Eve which makes it convenient for everyone.  In the last six years I've only seen them twice.  It is usually too cold or snowy for us.  This year I was determined to see them so I drove down at 5:30 PM so I could get good parking, had some dinner at Subway before walking around looking at the lights while I waited for the fireworks.  I took quite a few pictures of the lights strung up in the trees and the colorfully lit buildings.  The lights are beautiful.  I added the best pictures I took last night in my 2014 Christmas Google Photos album.

I did have an equipment casualty.  As I was crouching to take a low angle photograph I had my tripod balanced on my thigh.  I shifted and the tripod fell a foot onto the sidewalk and where the camera attachment attaches to the tripod legs shattered.  I suspect the temperature which was in the teens made the plastic brittle.

This was my favorite tripod.  It had lots of features like level indicators, a hook for weights, and a handle to carry it with when it was folded up.  Fortunately I'd received it free when I purchased a camera bag. and  I have another tripod that I received a few years before for Christmas.  Sadly, this free one, was the better of the two.

A walkway along the mall pond under the lights.

At 7:00 PM the fireworks started going off.  They were impressive the last few times I saw them (2008 and 2011) and they were quite impressive this time too.  I took a few pictures but only a few came out.  I also found the perfect place to park to watch them - you can sit in your warm car and have a perfect view of the show.

Fireworks at 7:00 PM

Today, New year's Day, after sleeping in, was a take down the decorations day.  The tree was put away, the lights and wreaths where taken down, and the big balls were picked out of the oak tree and put back into storage.  And with that, another holiday season is behind us.  Onward to 2015.