4th of July on Opposite Sides of the World

Tom deployed to the Middle East a couple weeks ago.  He spend his 4th of July working.  He called it delivering freedom. But it was fun to see this photo of him on Facebook as we were waiting for the fireworks to start.

Maddy drove from Kansas to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to spend time with her sister for the 4th.  They had a great time exploring and talking wedding plans.

We had a nice, relaxing day.  Bill, Chris and I headed to the Fort in the morning so I could see the Sing 4th competition.  I make sure to go every year because I enjoy it so much.  The girl that won this year sang "Morning Person" from the movie "Shrek".  She had a really sweet routine with props of a deer and birds to complete her performance.  I always enjoy hearing "The Girl in 14G" and the girl who sang that won 2nd place.  It always amazes me how anyone can pull off that song with all the changes in genre throughout.

We made a stop at the Pearson Air Museum.  Very disappointing.  We haven't been there since the Trust was evicted and took almost all the planes with them.  There is still only the two planes that the Trust wasn't able to get out in time.  And all the old displays of explanation along the walls that they weren't able to remove in time.  But otherwise there is almost nothing there anymore.  The only really cool thing that they had was a diorama  for the WWI era Spruce Mill that a dentist in town is putting together.  The Park Service claims they are working on getting more planes but nothing yet.  Hard to even call it an air museum when that really isn't what it is anymore.

We came home to watch "Harry Potter".  Bill's goal is to see all the Harry Potter movies in order.  So we have seen three in the last couple of weeks.  And I am sure more are on their way.  Then to Grandma's to have a little picnic at her house.

It is always a debate as to whether we want to go to the Fort to see the fireworks.  It is always so crowded and takes so long to get home afterward because of the traffic.  So really hard to get excited about it when you have to go to work the next day.  But since the 4th was on a Friday, we decided to go.

This is the first year that we have gotten a pass to park at the airport.  I guess they always made it such a hassle to get in the past that Bill never pursued it before.  But this year, they automatically sent them out so we took advantage of it.  And we really like having it.  We had a safe place to park for when we went to the Fort in the morning.  We came and went a few times because we forgot to take jackets in the evening so Bill even left about an hour before the fireworks so he could get a couple of sweatshirts at Fred Meyers when we got a little chilled.

We hung out at the hangar about three hours waiting for the fireworks to start.  Chris wanted to go back to the Fort and see if he could find any friends to hang out with.  So we obliged and went early in the evening for him.  Enjoyed drinking some wine and beer and doing some reading and people watching at the airport while we waited.  We moved to the taxiway when the time got closer so we had an unobstructed view.  The fireworks were wonderful although a lot shorter than it used to be in years past.  But 40 minutes was always a long time to watch in the past so 20 minutes seemed just right.  We were a little alarmed in the middle of the show.  Several grass fires started and the fire was going pretty well by the time the show ended.  We didn't stick around to see them putting it out.  We wanted to get out of the airport and on our way home.  Bill flew some passengers the day after and they said that the ground was pretty well charred.

A relatively quiet (other than firecrackers and fireworks), relaxing way to celebrate our nation's birth.