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Cost of gas got you down?

Have we got a deal for you. Stay in town this holiday weekend and enjoy the Fourth of July festivities downtown.

Things start early with the annual town photo. Be at Fifth Street and Commercial Avenue a little before 10 a.m. Friday to take part in this Anacortes American-sponsored event.

And remember to come back next week to pick up your copy of the photo. All proceeds go to next year’s fireworks fund.

Speaking of explosions, red, white and blue will be bursting out at the Fourth of July parade organized by the Anacortes Women of Today — who deserve our thanks once again for all their work to organize this popular event. The parade starts at 11 a.m. — kids first and then the rest of this really big show.

Next up is the Patriotic Program at 12:30 p.m. at Causland Memorial Park. Come for speeches, followed by children’s games, town criers, music and food booths.

The Fourth is about old-fashioned fun, but it’s a time to celebrate our independence. Taking time to reflect on all that our freedom provides us, and what it has cost, is certainly central to this most American of holidays.

Fireworks over Fidalgo Bay cap off the festivities around 10:30 p.m.

Founding father John Adams, our second president and one of the brave political leaders who signed the Declaration of Independence, would have approved.

“I believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival,” he wrote his wife, Abigail. “It ought to be celebrated by pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other...”

More than 200 years later, we’re celebrating from one end of the country to the other indeed. But let’s do without the guns and bonfires, and remember those illuminating personal fireworks are illegal, dangerous and devastating to pets and wildlife.