Solemn day for Contra Costa Firefighters

Last weekend, two firefighters died while rescuing a couple in the city of San Pablo. They were the first fallen firefighters in Co. Co. County in more than 30 years. A memorial for the firefighters was held today at the Pavillion. More than 100 Firetrucks came to be part of the memorial service. There was a procession from Sun Valley Mall up to the Pavillion. With 100 firetrucks, the procession took close to two hours to make its' way up to the Pavillion. We missed the procession this morning, but after stopping by Station 5 (the station was being covered by Santa Rosa) near Sequoia, we found out that the service was expected to end around 1:00. The girls and I grabbed our flags and headed up to the Pavillion to show our support. When we got up there, we were taken back seeing all the firetrucks in one place at one time. We camped out across the street from where the trucks left the service. I was touched by how thankful the firefighters seemed to be when spotting the girls waving their flags. We were passed by trucks from as far away as LA. There were different agencies present, too. To show their appreciation for the girls' support, the firefighters chirped their sirens, honked horns and either mouthed or yelled out their windows "thank you". From one truck that went by, from the loud speaker we heard "thank you, thank you so much". Firefighters reached way out of their trucks to wave to the girls. Ainsley started playing a game to see whether or not each trucks' shield would have the black band. Finally, after seeing that every truck had a black band, she would wave extra big because of the black band. Seeing how well the girls "act of kindness" was received will have a big impact on the girls as they reflect back upon our day. We were only out at the stoplight for about 1 1/2 hours and it was really hot. When we were heading back into Concord, Ainsley said she wanted to go take Station 10 Popsicles. We decided we would run to Trader Joe's to get some. On our way, we stopped by to pick up Erica. She helped us decide on flavors for Station 10. Right as we were walking up to the station, the firefighters from that station arrived in their trucks. A station from the City was covering for them while they were at the service. We rang and rang the bell. When the door was answered, the firefighter (we forgot to get his name, but he sure looks familiar) just lit up when he saw the girls bearing Popsicles. We told him that we'd been up across the street from the Pavillion, waving our flags and he said he knew...that he had seen us. We then said we knew they'd be very hot coming back...so here was something to cool them down. He seemed very happy with the Popsicles. We then went back to Erica's where we painted with watercolors outside, in the shade provided by their really big tree. What a rewarding day we had today.