Another Lantern Fest has come and gone, sadly, but we’re once again taking some great memories with us. We absolutely love that the whole town comes together for this event and parties for 4 days straight until they are just done for. Some of our neighbors living in newer sections of town hate this time of year. They find the partying too loud, the fact that they close off the street for the parade on 2 different days inconvenient and just generally seem to hate the whole event. We just tell them they need to start partying along with everyone else and ENJOY the festivities – it’s only once a year, after all, and a hell of a good time if you let yourself have one.

We took some video footage of the parade also but that hasn’t been edited yet…so you’ll have to settle for a few select pictures for now.

Our light fountain as you cross over the Nidda River. They actually build these on either side of the river which gives everyone a nice little misting when you cross over while the wind is blowing! And this year, you can also check out the new retirement home they’ve built in the last year – which should be opening soon from the looks of it.

Meet Amelie, one of Ayla’s friends. She came down to view the parade with her parents and although she looked a bit skeptical here, she generally enjoys all the people who love on her as she goes by, especially the kids. Ayla had to stay home because she was all kinds of excited and wouldn’t have made the parade all that much fun if she was trying to jump around the whole time…but maybe next year we’ll bring her along finally.

This was one of the more interesting contraptions of the night called a Beer Bike. There are 12 seats on the outside, each of which has their own set of peddles. Everyone sitting there powers the thing and someone standing in the middle can serve up beers while they work since there is a keg tap on board. Sounds like fun to me!

Meet our lovely Lantern Queen, Denise the 1st. She was tossing a rose our way when the photo was taken, but generally looked just as regal during the entire event.

In case you’re wondering, yes our streets here are wide – large enough, in fact, for the Queen Elizabeth 2 to fit down them…or at least a smaller version of her. 😉

The ship was even equipped with its own set of buoys who made sure no one was in danger around her.

A float called the Jungle King which was one of my favorites of the parade. I don’t know why but it just looked really nice.

And not to be missed was the Red Baron float, which was put together by our local youth fire department. We got to glimpse this float a few days prior to the parade and were quite impressed with it since it just looked really cool.

What will next year bring? Only time will tell. The themes are announced around March, then the hard work starts while all the groups build up their floats. When are we going to have our own? A very good question. Probbaly not too soon thought because we still would need a tractor. But we are considering having a drink stand next year which could be interesting. Perhaps we can convince our neighbor to come over with their line dancing group and perform in front of our place instead of 3 houses down like they did this year. Of course we’d have to actually start talking to them…hmm, maybe not! f