Shoreline park sign Down here at the end there's a sign which says "Shoreline Park". From here if you lean over the rail (careful, it's a high cliff) you get a nice view of the boat harbor and of Leadbetter Beach.

Shoreline park sign Leadbetter Beach along where those palm trees are is where they set off the big fireworks on the Forth of July. Everyone from Santa Barbara gets there early in the morning and each group digs a big pit in the sand. Then as the sun goes down and it starts getting dark everyone starts setting off their own fireworks [technically illegal] and the place becomes like a war zone because some of those fireworks go flying off everywhere and it becomes real smokey. If you don't have your pit dug by then it's a little too late. Then when it's really dark and the place is thick with smoke the city shoots off the real fireworks and everyone lays back in their pits and watches them burst overhead. After it's all over everyone decides they've had a long day and it's time to go home which suddenly creates the biggest traffic jam ever. The city complains every year that they have to get out the big bulldozers and fill in the big pits everyone leaves behind and that costs them a lot of money so we don't always have fireworks every year.

Fireworks were discontinued for several years after the Painted Cave Fire (see next page).

One year we had a laser light show in the LaCumbre Plaza parking lot. We watched as the laser drew cartoon pictures of fireworks exploding on the big outdoor screen.

In 1994 a group of citizens determined to bring back fireworks to Santa Barbara formed a group called SPARKLE - the Santa Barbara Patriotic Association for the Return of Kabooms to Light the sky for Everyone! (Someone with a big imagination dreamed up that acronym.)

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