About the 4th of July

So lots of people have Holiday traditions and my family does too, but one Holiday we always kind of wing is Independence day. Its not that we don't care for it, it just always sneaks up on you, doesn't it? We don't often have hard and set plans like we do for the rest of the big holidays. When I was a kid we watched fireworks at different places from year to year. For a while we watched the National Fireworks practice fire in Harpers Ferry at my Grandmother's house. Other years we saw them at Half Moon Beach.

Since I've been an adult I have continued to treat my 4th of July plans casually and tonight I thought back on the 4ths of the last several years and had to smile at how wonderfully they've come together.

For the summers of 1999, 2000, 20001 and 2002 I would have been at camp for the fourth. We generally did sparklers and maybe sang God Bless America. My memories of these nights are pretty faded into the general celebration that camp always is.

In 2003 thought I visited Niagara Falls with my friends Amber, Trey and Jessica. We gambled and took in the amazing sights and sounds of the falls, but by far the best part was the moment when we happened to be walking across the bridge from Canada back to the USA to head home and both countries set off KILLER fireworks simultaneously, in an effort to outdo one another. It was a sight I'll never ever forget!

In 2004 I lived in SE DC with Laura and had an internship at Children's Hospital. We loved living in DC and went to the huge Capital 4th on the Washington Mall with our friends Meredith, Lauren, Kelly and Emmy.

In July of 2005 Laura took me to her family's home place in Upstate New York for a week. We did lots of cool things upstate like boating on Lake Champlain and going to Vermont for maple-flavored ice cream but for the 4th we traveled to Fort Ticonderoga for fireworks and a carnival.

In 2006 I went tubing on the Shenandoah with my friend Kelly which was an amazingly relaxing and fun trip. I really want to do this again!

In 2007 Sarah, Kris and I went to the park in Stephens City to see Jefferson Starship and fireworks. The fireworks were great, Jefferson Starship not so great. We all had a good time anyway!

In 2008 I watched the fireworks from my very own porch and relaxed with my mom and our neighbors.

Last year Jake was with me for the 4th and we went, along with Kirstin, Aaron, Chance and Kirstin's awesome family, to the town park in Middletown for fireworks and to the Civil Cricket for drinks. The fireworks were so so but the company was terrific.

This year my brother Adam is in town and I will write much more about this coming up. For the 4th though we headed down to, where else? Coney Island, my favorite! We hoped to see fireworks and were a little nervous about the huge Hot Dog Eating contest crowd. What we got were delicious hot dogs, a ride on the Wonder Wheel and the Cyclone and some awesome people watching. We didn't get a whole lot of fireworks but neither of us were disappointed.

What a fun holiday! Can't wait to see what I'll do to celebrate it next year!