Saturday, July 05, 2008
Did you know that the Declaration of Independence was not actually signed by most of the delegates till August 2, 1776? In typical American fashion, we jumped the gun and declared July 4 as Independence Day.
So why not wish you a happy 5th of July? Seems perfectly logical.
Yesterday we woke up. (A critical first part of the day.) Went on the dorky little neighborhood parade - which I really love. All the kids decorate their scooters and bikes with crepe paper and balloons and the Fire Dept. shows up and drives the truck real slow around the neighborhood while everyone trails along.
Our friend Kim is the GM of the local Water District - y'know they're all about everyone getting artificial turf instead of grass and not flushing toilets and things to conserve water. But she was SICK - so the fire guys hooked up the water hose and blasted all the kids for like 20 minutes. It was not so earth saving - but it was FUN. REALLY FUN. I'll tuck another $10 in the water bill or something...
Then we entertained some friends for a BBQ - they're moving into the neighborhood after a series of heartaches so it was great to get their minds on something else for awhile.
After a brief late afternoon rest - which we knew at least Becca needed because when she's tired she can't modulate her voice anymore (HEY!!!!!! (poke, poke) YOU WANT TO COLOR WITH ME????) - we headed off to one of the big fireworks displays. We decided to go up to Oceanside.
Oceanside has a really cool pier area. But for some reason, it was like someone invited everyone who had just gotten out of jail in the last 30 days, to this particular beach. Now... I never really mind this. I like to be out amongst the people. But our friends thought we were for sure going to be killed. We did come within 15 feet of live fireworks being shot off in the street on our way back to the car. Still, come on. This is the melting pot country here.
Actually that wasn't the real problem. The REAL problem was... after we had parked somewhere near Canada, the sun went down. The air temperature dropped and a thick fog developed. Otherwise known as the marine layer. Thick enough that you could not see the fireworks! It was like fireworks for the visually impaired...
I was proud of the crowd, everyone (100,000 everyones actually) just kind of walked back to their cars and went home. In the heat of Chicago downtown, such a rip-off would have been the stuff a small riot could be made of. I suppose Californians are just more laid back about stuff.
2 comments:
Sounds like your fireworks were about as good as ours! We wimped out and didn't go to the ones at an adjoining town since they STARTED around 9:30pm...Samantha and Danielle are going on a trip with their grandparents today. All we needed was cranky, overtired, misbehaving children for that trip. Consistent sleep and watching the Boston Pops on TV seemed to make more sense. We could see the fireworks out our window just a little. Seems the trees block our view. Oh, well. We did go over to a friend's house for dinner, and the girls used sparklers for the first time and set off about 15 boxes of snap n pops. All was not lost! Sounds like you had a nice 4th! Love the water hose story. I can imagine you in with "da people". Fun image!
Mel
I had to laugh about your Chicago comment, because we won't even go there anymore due to all the mayhem. Mike and I did happen to be at a White Sox game this past Thurs., and by the time we took the El to State Street and then walked to Union Station, the throngs had started descending from the lakefront. I was like, "Ruuuuuunnnnnnn!" (but Mike couldn't, because he was LOADED). Turns out there was a shooting, with one person killed. Found out the next morning, and then I was all, "SEE! THAT's why I was trying to hurry you!"
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