Despite a few weather hiccups, thousands again descended on this year’s Middletown Grange Fair on Penns Park Road in Wrightstown, making it one of the best events yet.

BRISTOL BOROUGH - An armada of decorated boats paddled across the serene waters of the Bristol Lagoon early Friday evening as the hugely popular Delaware Canal Festival got underway. While organizers kept a weary eye on the sky, hoping predictions of showers and storms would hold off, applause filled the air along the banks of the lagoon where hundreds gathered on beach chairs and blankets to watch the boat parade and to enjoy the other festival offerings. Organized by the Friends of the Delaware Canal, the special evening devoted to the canal featured live music, duck decorating tables, community informational booths, canal-related games including pin the tail on the mule, a cardboard boat contest, food trucks organized by Raising the Bar and the highlight of the day, the decorated boat parade.

Close to 400 hand-carved pumpkins – a record number this year - stretch for a quarter of a mile north along Edgewater Avenue from the East Afton Avenue canal bridge, capturing the spirit and magic of the Halloween season. The old-fashion, low-tech, family celebration of Halloween kicks off every year with a hugely-popular community Carve-O-Thon, where young and old gather on the Sunday before Halloween to create the jack-o-lanterns used to line the towpath. The serious carvers use power tools to create intricate designs, while others just use old-fashioned elbow grease and knives to work their creative magic on the pumpkins, which were purchased and donated by Charlann Farms in Lower Makefield. “I can’t believe the turnout today. It’s hard to imagine that nine years ago when we started this there were just a handful of people carving 25 or 30 pumpkins,” said Team Canal-O-Ween leader Tammy Marshall. “This is huge,” she said.

DOYLESTOWN >> During a poignant ceremony Sunday morning in Doylestown punctuated by the sounds of bagpipes, firefighters, fire police officers and EMS personnel gathered to honor the county’s fallen heroes. The ceremony began with a parade of firefighters, fire police officers and EMS personnel marching into the courtyard adjacent to the former courthouse. They were led by the Tullytown Fire Company Honor Guard and the Loch and Rannoch Pipes & Drum. As they honored the memory of the 30 county firefighters, paramedics, EMTs and fire police who have died in the line of duty, the first responders paid special tribute to two fire police officers whose names have been freshly etched into the memorial stone.

In a moving and beautiful Remembrance in Light ceremony replete with symbolism, the community bowed its collective head to remember, reflect and honor the memory of the 2,977 souls taken that day at the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, DC, and in a field in Western Pennsylvania.

The five-day event spotlighted the best of Bucks County’s agricultural community, from its thriving 4-H program to antique farm machinery and award-winning crops. Fair visitors got to watch pig races, take in numerous animal shows, enjoyed free entertainment by voice impressionist and comedian Johnny Counterfit and the Essential Elvis Tribute Show with Jeff Krick and devoured delicious chicken dinner with home-grown ingredients.

As the old saying goes, “The third time’s a charm.” So it was with the fireworks at Washington Crossing Historic Park. Originally scheduled for Independence Day, threatening weather forced its postponement to July 8 and finally to July 16 when they lit up the skies for hundreds who gathered in the large grassy area across from the visitor’s center on scenic Route 32. The spectacular display, choreographed to patriotic and modern music, sent brilliant streamers of light rocketing across the nighttime sky in a non-stop blitz of color, light and sound that brought applause and a chorus of oohs and aahs from the crowd.

Bucks County’s celebration of America’s birthday kicked off in patriotic style Saturday night with a Concert Under the Stars by the Riverside Symphonia at Tinicum Park followed by a breathtaking fireworks display that sent streams of color streaking across the night sky. Unusually cool July weather greeted hundreds of picnickers who brought blankets, tables and chairs to the park’s wide open fields for a picnic lunch, followed by a concert by the Riverside Symphonia and fireworks. The celebration continued on Monday with flag-waving Fourth of July Parades marching through Middletown Township, Upper Southampton and Lower Southampton townships and an Old Fashioned Fourth of July celebration, which unfolded on the grounds of the Fonthill Castle in Doylestown.

As crowds watched from the banks, decorated boats floated by on the placid lagoon waters as part of a celebration of the canal organized by the Friends of the Delaware Canal with help from Raising the Bar, which arranged food trucks for the event.