It Was A Fabulous Fourth Of July - One Of Our Best Yet

It Was A Fabulous Fourth Of July - 

One Of Our Best Yet

I went to bed, and woke up still under the spell of an absolutely marvelous 4th of July holiday. We did a string of 'ordinary' 4th of July things, but cumulatively they added up to a magical and wonderful day.

Here's how we rolled:

We woke up naturally at 5:30 AM, and immediately jumped into our cars in order to drop one of our cars off in our beach town's downtown area before the crowds descended. And so happy we made the effort to do so, because by 8:00 AM, people were sharing photos of packed parking on our local community Facebook page.

Once back home, we enjoyed our morning cups of coffee leisurely until a little after 9 AM. I then packed a simple sack lunch and we headed out the door on foot. We walked first to the beach we live closest to, enjoying the heightened holiday crowds and energy, saying for the first of about a dozen times over our walk - how happy we were to be out and about on foot instead of being stressed by the crowds and lack of parking from inside a car.

And not to gloat, truly - I'm simply thankful! - but it was a gloriously cool 70-73 degrees during our entire walk.

From the beach we walked next to our harbor, primarily to enjoy Water Wars, a long standing July 4th tradition. People enter the water on anything and everything, and a war between watercraft and the folks watching from land ensues and goes on for hours.

Short video of Water Wars below. You can click Full Screen icon in order to maximize video size.

We watched and laughed at the ongoing antics for about half an hour, then walked to a quieter spot for our sack lunch. We chatted with an older couple we were seated alongside, something that happens all the time here, as people are quite relaxed and open for the most part. A result, I think, of the natural beauty we all live alongside creating a desire to share our joy with others.

From there, we enjoyed an easy walk back up to our already-parked car. Yes, 'up' and why we elected to leave a car for the return trip, lol.

We stopped at the brewery near our home on the return for a shared cup of iced cold brew coffee amidst yet another crowd of happy holiday energy.

I love so much where we live - happy energy spills over almost everywhere we go. It's addictive.

At home we showered and then loaded the car for dinner and fireworks at my mom's, our first time doing so.

We enjoyed a BYOM (Meat) event outside of her building, with neighbors joining in. One neighbor brought our his grill, the others all brought a food item to share. It was just all very relaxed and enjoyable.

As it got dark, we moved our chairs out onto the sidewalk for 'the show.' And a show it was! Literally right in front of us, not having to walk or drive anywhere, the city sent off a fantastic fireworks show. It was fabulous, eliciting several spontaneous rounds of applause from the people that had gathered by this point all up and down her street.

We jumped in our car the moment the show was over, following a route home a friend had said would be uncrowded and . . . it was! It was so easy, and we were able to avoid all post-fireworks traffic.

We arrived home just as the fireworks display nearest to where we live started up, and finished out the night watching them from our balcony.

Honestly, it's probably the best and most relaxing 4th of July we've ever experienced, and we're going to simply put it on repeat going forward.

I hope you had a fabulous 4th wherever you are, and a Sunday that is just as busy or relaxed as you wish it to be!