July 4th

Yesterday was the 4th of July and this is what I think...

We started the day be sleeping late...the way every good holiday should be enjoyed but few actually are. We did not do it on purpose, but we were glad it happened. 15 minutes after we got out of bed, a parade went down Main Street. I watched it from my lviing room windows. Naked. Best parade outfit I ever wore. I remember when I was in the opening number for the Welcome America July 4th parade in Philadelphia one blazing hot summer, sweating (and basically dying) underneath heavy, hot parade-wear, "singing" and dancing on the burning black pavement of the Ben Franklin Boulevard. Wearing underwear in my living room was so much more comfortable than that.

Because it was a Saturday, we, of course, had to cover evens for Kurt's Pennington paper. Since few things ever happen in the quaint borough of Pennington, New Jersey, we attended an event across the river, in our own state, at Washington Crossing Park in Pennsylvania.



There we saw and photographed many actors in Revolutionary War costumes, listened to some old time music, toured some old time houses, and picnicked on the grassy bank of the Delaware River.

Kurt made two delicious salads: a garden salad filled with summer veggies and chicken, and a fruit salad soaked in his secret ingredient. We brought them in our little cooler, along with apple juice and a Snickers bar, and enjoyed them next to the cannon that was being blasted into the river. The explosion was super loud, and surprisingly frequent; my favorite part was the echo as the sound bounced back to us from New Jersey. I pretended the British were fighting back. A couple of holiday revelers lazied down the river on tubes, causing the reenactors much grief as they waited impatiently to fire the cannon in their direction. Eventually, George Washington's men finally shooed them away, only to be delayed again by a speed boat zipping by. Something I am sure the real soldiers also found very annoying as they attempted to cross the river in their canoe-like vessels those 235ish years ago.

From our picnic lunch, we headed to Pennington to take pictures of flags in the borough and get the scoop on the towns famous gelato shop. Hah - get it? The scoop...on gelato... Ya. They were surprisingly open, but the owners was unavailable. Oh well. I checked out a second hand shop in search of a silver trumpet vase for my dining room table but came up empty handed. No biggie.

Hungry, we headed to Princeton to find something to eat. Though we had a delicious, picnic lunch, I was in need of some sort of bread product. Cruel, I know, considering Kurt is allergic to gluten. Hey, I have cut back drastically on my gluten intake in the past year, but when I need a bread product, I think I deserve to have one!

Parking was free on Nassau Street because it was a meter holiday (please do not ask Kurt what a meter holiday is), and there were many fewer people bombarding the street than usual, but still a healthy enough crowd to make it an enjoyable walk. Though we like to eat at fun restaurants and try new places often, I spied a Panera Bread and instantly knew I wanted soup in a sour dough bread bowl. I took my Celiac man to the bread restaurant and there we had a quick dinner. I had summer corn chowder in the bread bowl with "limes with orange" Jones drink, and he had the same soup (no bread bowl!) with a greek salad and iced green tea. It had been about two years since I had been in a Panera and, though I am no dan of chains, it was enjoyable.

From there, we walked around Nassau Street and Palmer Square for a few minutes to walk off the meal before heading to our final destination of the evening. Kurt found a mewspaper/magazine kiosk and stopped without warning, so I found myself walking alone. I turned back to see him peering through the glass at the cover of W magazine, stopped to wait for him, then turned back again to find my senior-year-of-college-roommate, Tommy, standing next to me! Like Panera, I think it has been about two years since I last saw him, so it was a swell surprise. I met his boyfriend, he met mine, and then we parted ways since we had to hie ourselves to Rider College for their concert and fireworks.


At Rider, while Kurt worked the crowd, taking pictures and names, I sprawled myself out on our blanket and restarted reading Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution. I suppose I was not reading about the most appropriate revolution on the 4th of July. Oh well. The fireworks were very lengthy, very impressive, and very close. Inordinate amounts of debris landed on us as we gazed upward, and one piece landed in Kurt's eye. It came out pretty quickly. Some of the pieces were huge! I had never experienced that before, not because I had never been so close, but because the wind had never been so directly aimed at me before. It was an interesting experience. Fireworks are my favorite of man's inventions, so I was delighted to catch a show this year. Getting out of the parking lot took longer than the show. Ew. It amazes me that humans can choreograph such elaborate situations as dance routines, fireworks displays, highway systems, and ceremonies, but we still have not managed to choreograph vehicles at large events. There must be a way.

As usual, we had a long Saturday filled with several events to cover and no time in our home, but the days events were all festive and very enjoyable. Yay! We got home late, played with Chase and his new toy, then crashed in bed.

Happy 233rd birthday, USA!