Monday, July 3rd
The park next to our development hosts a huge 3rd of July celebration every year, except for the Covid years, that included, music, food, activities and fireworks to finalize the evening. Since we've been living here, we try to make an effort to at least watch the fireworks.
This year, I didn't want anyone parking in our cul-de-sac, so I grabbed a bunch of garbage cans and some streamers and put them in the front to evade unwanted people. Our neighbor, Gary, liked the idea and grabbed his garbage cans. He then asked me if I could extend my streamers to connect with his garbage cans. I didn't mind. This was the first time I've ever spoken to him, and we've been living here since May 2019.
We had asked others to join us, but Mom and Dad bailed, Erika and Zac didn't want to do anything, Doug stayed in his room and Josh and Heather were supposed to come over but canceled last minute because their son, Michael, surprised them coming home from Texas. I made my red, white and blue Funfetti cakes that afternoon.
So, when Ben came home, we ate BBQ hamburgers, drank Ben's margaritas we made in the blender and went to the firework show all by ourselves. Rhonda, Mom's co-worker, asked if she could park in our driveway and I told her that was fine. They showed up around 8:30-8:45.
As it approached 9 p.m., the streets around the park, including our neighborhood, was filled with cars, trucks, vans and people everywhere. Rhonda and her family started walking over while Ben and I grabbed a blanket to sit on and made our way over as well, wading through all the people, cars and commotion. We made our way to the dirt short cut through our neighborhood to the park. There were already tons of people, and this had been going on since, I think, 4 p.m.
Last year there was a shooting after the fireworks had ended. I heard about it once we were already home but still, scary and too close to home. Someone did die. I found out later that it was someone's brother that I went to school with. Small world. This year there were more lit areas around the park and more security officers walking around. I asked Ben if he wanted to walk around a bit to see what was around. I texted Rhonda to see where they were sitting but never heard back. Once we were done wandering around, we found a spot where we could see the fireworks and set up shop. We hung out, people watched and wondered where in the park Rhonda was.
Once 10:00 hit, the fireworks started going off. We knew it would be about a 15-minute show or so. It was fun to sit there, relax and watch the sky explode into pretty colors.
Once the show was over, we sat there for a few minutes, folded up our blanket and started making our way back towards the house. Then we ran into Rhonda. I asked where she was sitting. She pointed and I was like, we were literally 50 feet away from you. We chuckled and walked back to our house together, dodging people and traffic.
Rhonda and her family headed home while Ben and I hung out and enjoyed that we didn't have to go to work the next day. We went to bed late but looked forward to hanging out at the lake on the 4th.
Tuesday, July 4th
We slept in as late as we could, then got up, did our bathroom things and came out to the living room to eat a light breakfast. I turned on the ESPN Nathan's Hotdog eating contest to watch Joey Chestnut gobble down 62 hot dogs. There was a significant delay due to a thunderstorm in New York but managed to get the contest underway after two hours. I called Mom and Grandma to let them know when I would be in Rainier to pick them up to drive out to the lake.
I drove over to Erika and Zac's house to deliver one of my red, white and blue star cakes I made the night before. I picked up some Hello Fresh cards from her as we talked about the current Doug situation. I could not wait until he figured out his life and moved out. Living with him was so stressful. I got back home, did a few things, got slowly got ready for the lake and packed up the Escape.
Ben and I drove into Rainier and picked up Grandma first around 2:30, loaded up her stuff in the back and then headed over to Mom and Dad's to yell at Mom for not being ready to be picked up (this happens just about every time we go somewhere). I went into the house and grabbed her bags and brought them out. Dad was going to drive separate and meet us at Paul and Peggy's. We were able to cram everything into the Escape and off to Eatonville we went.
Traffic wasn't bad so we got there just after 3:15. There weren't that many people there yet, so we grabbed one of the good parking spots. We got out the wagon, assembled it and packed what we needed into it. We wheeled it down to the lake, saying hi to everyone we passed and dropped off our food we brought onto the table. We set up our chairs in the grassy area between the sidewalk and the retaining wall next to the lake. We found out we were too late for the boat parade and missed it. Ben and I went back up to the Escape and used my portable air pump to pump up our float tubes. This was the main reason why I wanted to come early, so we could spend some time floating on the lake before dinner.
We chatted for a few minutes while we each took a turn changing into our swimming suits. It was such a nice day. We never know when we will have a hot summer day during the 4th of July. Some years we are lucky while the others, we are not. As we prepared to get into the lake, Trish, Amy and Ed showed up. They got settled in and got their suits on and slid into their tubes. We made fun of Trish for how she was trying to get into her tube. She managed without dumping herself into the lake. I saw that someone brought a giant duck floatie and yes, I got on that bad boy like I owned it.
We were out there for a good hour or so. We thoroughly enjoyed Mount Rainier as the backdrop, the summer-like weather and I am always happy when I am able to get a good float in with family and friends. We hung out in our floats for a while as we chatted about random things. I saw that Paul had started the grill, that meant, it was getting close for stuffing our face time.
I got out, grabbed my beach towel and sat in the sun for a while as I dried out. Then I heard that the food was done. I hustled up to the porch, grabbed a plate and grabbed a burger, some chips, fruit, potato salad and other things that sounded appealing. I am a sucker for grilled food during the summer. I found my place on the small piece of lawn in front of the lake and enjoyed my food. I realized that we forgot our little pop-up table. Lame.
We all ate and enjoyed each other's company. There were still a bunch of kids going in and out of the lake. After I was done with food, I went to go change out of my wet clothes and into my dry clothes. It was going to be warm for the rest of the day and into the evening, so I didn't worry about socks or sweatpants. I just threw on some shorts, another tank top and a little while later, a sweatshirt. I went to the various little groups of people chatting while Ben, Trish and Ed played corn hole. Dad made it out and hung out for a while. I chatted with Carrie, Bob and Bev, Peggy, and other people as they made their way through talking with others.
I heard that Paul was going to take one more group of people out on the boat before it started to get dark. I made sure I was one of the ones who hopped on board. We puttered around the lake in a counterclockwise pattern enjoying some of the views of the mountain, the outrageous expensive houses (Paul picked out the ones he helped build the foundations for) and some people had started shooting off fireworks. It was a nice calm boat ride until some jet skis and boats drove by that created a wake that spilled up over the starboard side of the boat where the gate was. People got wet butts, legs and feet.
We got back to the house and Paul and PJ prepared the boat to be picked up at the boat launch just next door to their property. I grabbed a few more snacks and settled in. Someone had started the fire pit, and some people plopped their chairs next to it. It got darker and darker, and you could see all the fountains, mortars and cakes exploding all around the lake. We even had some fireworks blowing up off of our dock. Then the red flares were lit. We waited for the barge to go out to the middle of the lake for the 15-minute firework show.
The barge was a few minutes late, but its show never disappoints. There were some new formations this year I haven't seen before. After the grand finale and some cheering, we gathered up our stuff, crammed it into the wagon and drove it up to the Escape.
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I had taken some stuff up and packed it in the Escape earlier. Putting everything back in was sure a challenge. We walked back down to the house to make sure we got our food containers. We thanked Paul and Peggy for another good time and gave out some hugs. We thanked Trish for coming out and enjoying the day with us. She thanked us back for inviting them out.
We all piled into the Escape and left. It didn't take us too long to get out of the driveway and onto the Maridian and then quickly onto 352nd. Traffic wasn't actually that bad like it's been in the past. I was so glad we didn't have to follow anyone on that road. We got into McKenna about 20 minutes later and then the backroad to Vail and Rainier. We dropped off Grandma first and made sure she and all of her stuff made it into the house before we left. Then we dropped off Mom and helped her bring her stuff in. We left and drove home. We got home just before midnight. I grabbed a quick shower and went to bed because we had to work the next day.
Not a huge fan of the 4th of July being on a weekday in the middle of the week. Luckily, I work from home, or it would be worse. At least next year it's on a Thursday.
Next Adventure: Camping at Dosewallips State Park with the Pablo's and Iselin's
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