Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Birthday to America!
What a fun-filled fourth of July we had here ...

First of all, yesterday we trekked 2 hours to reach downtown Chicago (and no, it does not normally take 2 hours to get down there) to see the fireworks.
Now, we pulled into a parking garage down there to park (to the tune of 25 dollars! Ugh. It was hard to pay that). Anyway, when we pulled in they had security guards warning people that there would be delays when leaving after the fireworks. Ummm, really? Do you think?! There are only over a million people down there, and did people not expect there to be delays coming out of the city when lots of roads are closed for the Taste of Chicago and everyone would be leaving roughly at the same time? Anyway, I thought that was pretty obvious information, but apparently someone somewhere thought that people needed to be warned!

So we made it downtown. We made it to the Yacht club - what did you think this princess was going to fight for a spot on the grass amongst lots of strangers? Nope. Much too spoiled for that!

As with years past we went with dh's work which meant tickets into the CYC! They had a lovely meal ready for us and most importantly VERY delicious desserts.

DH ran around with Little Man - there was only one close call with him nearing the edge of the dock, but luckily there were no falls into the lake.

We did some dancing to the very nice live band And then sat and prepared ourselves for the show about to start.
They were fantastic! Gorgeous fireworks ... I, who was pretty much dragged downtown kicking and screaming, was enthralled with all the fireworks there were. Just amazed!

All three kids did great with them .. in fact Little Man fell asleep during the show. I'm still not sure. Granted we weren't right next to where they were shooting off from, but the booms were still pretty darn loud!

The show ended and we decided to hang around the CYC for a bit ... since there would be delays getting out of the city. Keep in mind, we have done this every year we go downtown because of how hard it is to get out of the city. So about 5 minutes after the show ends (and after most others had left) it starts to rain a bit. And then it gets harder. And so we go to a tent. And kind of stand under it. At which point, we decided to walk to the car to get out of the rain because dh was pretty sure it would only get harder (he was right!).
Here is my only depressing thought for the night ... as we walked the whole 2 blocks to the car, all I could see was trash everywhere. Chicago puts garbage cans out ALL over the place. I mean like every 10 feet. I did not see one garbage can that was overflowing, and yet, the garbage all over the ground. It was so depressing to me. Are Americans so lazy we can't walk 10 feet to a garbage can? We can't bring a garbage bag with us to our picnicking site and throw our trash away? So depressing frankly. And it made me think people in general are huge pigs. Okay. Enough ranting.
So we get to the car, where we sit for 15 minutes. Then try to leave and face the huge delays. Needless to say, I got much knitting done in the car yesterday due to the drive there and home! I really tried to soak it all up. We knew we weren't doing much today.
My dd was in a parade, so we went to that and she had a lot of fun being in it (and the rest of us had a lot of fun watching it!).

Came home and was prepared to relax for the rest of the day, which we did a lot of. Then tonight my dd comes in and asks if she can watch the fireworks with the neighbors. And I'm thinking what fireworks? (Our town shoots off fireworks which shouldn't be surprising but was somehow left out of the list in the paper). They were going to walk 2 blocks away to get a good view and I let her go. As she was leaving with them, the neighbor next to us was setting up camp in his yard and Miss M went to play with the kids there. That is when he told us we would have a great view of the fireworks from our houses. So I grabbed a few chairs and Miss M, Little Man and I went and watched the fireworks there. Now, as if there weren't enough fireworks, at least 4 of our neighbors purchased their very own fireworks - and I am not talking bottle rockets here (although many of those were shot off tonight!) We are talking big huge fireworks ... that could rival the town's fireworks. And they kept coming and coming. We were outside until 10:30 - now at 11:15, I can still hear the booms. We were told by three separate neighbors that this is tame compared to most years because so many people have to work tomorrow. If what I saw tonight was tame, I am nervous to find out what a "normal" year around here looks like!
But it is fun and all the kids have fallen asleep so I don't mind too much ;-)

Anyway, it has been a great fourth of July over in this house! I hope the rest of America is having fun too!!