This year my 4th of July was conventional, in an unconventional way.
Instead of heading into Seattle to find the biggest crowds and the best fireworks display, we headed the other direction, the country!
Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I missed out on so many good photo ops; hopefully I can do the day justice with my words.
There's just nothing like a small town parade. Our destination...Carnation! It's the total storybook small town: one main street with ma & pa shops lining both sides, houses with white picket fences and screens on their front doors, trucks and corn fields. (And Starbucks)
I could write a blog and a half about the great chances you get to people watch at parades...but I wont.
The parade was basically free advertising for local business, but I'll mention the things that I loved about this one:
- The only float was a giant tooth ...
- The kid riding in a canoe on the flatbed of a truck, head on hand with an expression of total disgust, when he should have been chanting some tribal song...
- I saw a mule for the first time...
-The city council member trying to ride a Segway...
- The squad of antique...tractors.
- The jacked up fire truck...
- The Mariachi band...
- Mexican horses doing this fancy trot called a piaffe- it's legit. I had to look it up because I thought the horses were just totally uncoordinated. I still think some of them where...
I felt like it wouldn't be the 4th of July unless we had BBQ, or grilled something! Well...Since we don't have either, I did the best I could. A couple months ago I decided to invest in a George Foreman Grill. This little machine has changed my life. I have found a renewed enjoyment of cooking.
Here is the meal I made for Father's Day!
Anyways I brought my George Foreman outside, plugged it in (with the help of extension chords) and fired up the grill!! While the chicken cooked I blasted Ray Charles singing America, the Beautiful, and took in the warm summer evening, the music and the chicken on the grill! Ha! With a little BBQ sauce, we had a legit 4th of July meal. (Along with corn on the cob, watermelon, and a blue cheese, pear, and walnut mixed green salad with a vinaigrette dressing)
We headed back out to Carnation for the fireworks. As we waited for the show to begin... a local band serenaded the crowd with covers of those...forgettable bands such as Blondie, Bad Company, Styx, and a few other disco bands that seem to have slipped my mind...Maybe it was the feather boas wrapped around the microphones that I just couldn't get over? Hm.
This year had all of the best elements of a 4th of July...each unique to say the least...I wouldn't have it any other way!
2 comments:
Wow, that meal looks beautiful! I am so impressed! That sounds like a really hilarious 4th of July. If we are in Washington sometime during the summer, we will have to go to the figure 8 races, it's great.
Seriously, what is the 4th without good ol' Foreman to keep things interesting. Hmm...does the foreman do monkey bread?
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