Americans Mark 4th of July With Festivities, Fireworks : Holiday: Beaches and playgrounds are popular sites. While many swelter across the nation, some in Colorado are treated to a snowstorm.

Food, festivities and fireworks filled the Fourth of July weekend across the nation, along with a few parades and rodeos for those who didn’t head to the beach or the campground.

People trying to escape summer heat got more than they bargained for in the Colorado Rockies--snow!

“We’re sitting here in shorts, and there’s a guy in his camper with Kansas plates. He has three kids in shorts, and his wife is taking pictures because it’s the Fourth of July and it’s snowing,” said Dave Long, a writer with the Dayton Daily News in Ohio, who found himself in the middle of a snowstorm as he drove over 10,600-foot Vail Pass.

Elsewhere, the Declaration of Independence was read from the Old State House balcony in Boston, and a 21-gun salute was fired next to the historic frigate Constitution.

In Washington, tens of thousands of people thronged to the National Mall for festivities. Beverage coolers, headbands and backpacks were much in evidence as the holiday revelers braved scorching heat in the mid-90s.

The U.S. Park Police said approximately 200 people on the National Mall and surrounding areas had been treated for heat exhaustion, and eight were transported to local hospitals. Police estimated the crowd for the day’s activities in the range of 450,000.

The crowd watched a spectacular fireworks display after an evening concert at the West Front of the U.S. Capitol.

In Chicago, the city’s annual Taste of Chicago food festival featured expensive food and free country music.

An Alternative Taste of Chicago, sponsored by the Chicago Christian Industrial League, provided free barbecue, hamburgers and blues music to about 500 homeless people.

Some 45,000 runners competed in the 24th annual Peachtree 10-K Road Race in Atlanta, while people puckered up at the 20th annual Cherry Pit Spitting Competition in Eau Claire, Mich. Joe Lessard Sr., of Blenheim, Canada, took first place Saturday with a 57-foot, 2-inch spit.

The holiday took on a decidedly Western outlook for thousands of rodeo fans across the nation.

“To put it in perspective, we have 40-plus rodeos this weekend,” said Melissa Metzler of the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Assn. in Colorado Springs, Colo. “That’s out of about 800 total rodeos for the year.”

In Michigan, the eight-day Battle Creek International Balloon Championship kicked off Saturday. As many as 250,000 people were expected to attend each day of the hot-air balloon event.

For some, the holiday was a time to look to the sky. Some looked for fireworks, but hundreds gathered in Richmond, Va., scanned the heavens for a different reason.

They were attending a a UFO convention.