Fourth of July

Well the Fourth has come and gone. Man I love this holiday. As a kid I remember having a hard time picking between the 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Years. It seemed like you were supposed to have a favorite holiday. Now I ask, why? And I also say, uh uh!

Okay, let's move on to the actual festivities and off of my holiday soap box. Bar Harbor hosts a blueberry pancake breakfast on the Fourth from 6 to 9 am. It's fun if you want to get together with some friends early, or if you don't have your own kitchen but still want part of the action I guess, but they're just Bisquick type pancakes with blueberries in them, so we did our own thing. Then we went into town for the parade.

Finn and Mumma ready for the parade to start.

Madie wanted to ride in the YMCA bus with her preschool friends, so we had to be there a half hour before the parade started. Well, we actually got there 15 minutes before, and parked on the opposite side of town. I know it's not a big town, but you should try hauling a 4 year old from one end of it to the other in 10 minutes and 90 degrees. By the time I got back to Mike and Finn and our seats I was drenched.

Trying to stay cool.

I kind of wish Madie was sitting with us--it would have been the first parade she really would have understood and remembered I think.

Watching the first set of Shriners.

Dad and FinnMan. This is after a couple of fire trucks went by and blew their horns. He was a delicate flower from there on out.

Madie is somewhere on that bus, but despite running to the other side of the street (where she would see us) and yelling and yelling for her to look outside, we never saw her and she says she never saw us. :(

I want to hang from a fire truck with a cape!

The parade lasted about 45 minutes. It's not as long as I remember it being as a kid. They didn't have the grey hounds for one thing, and there wasn't one single school band. WHAT?! The high school band at least has always played in the parade! And usually a couple of middle schools. My dad will probably say, "Well, thank heavens. Then you won't have anyone butchering the national anthem," or something to that effect. But I missed it. I'll need to petition for it next year.

After the parade we went to the athletic fields to look at the craft fair. They also have a seafood festival down there and lobster races (which we opted out of this year) and some games for kids. We didn't stay  long though 'cause we went to the middle school to meet up with some friends for a little baseball. We were the only ones there for the first 20 minutes or so and we thought no one would show so Mike was running back to get the car for us to go home but before he could get back two other families showed and then a third so we did end up tossing a frisbee around. (We, of course, had already been hitting the ball and playing chase.)

Play ball or eat? I think we know the answer to this...

After we rested at home for a bit, we went to some friends' house for dinner and then walked the shore path to the fireworks. Because Madie and Bryant were so anxious to go and we were ready, we went ahead of everyone else and hung out on the Lunt's pier until we saw the rest of the crew.

Me, Madie, and Bryant hanging out. The Margaret Todd was just docking.

Lunt's pier on Frenchman's Bay.

Finnegan enjoying some fingers.

A gorgeous pink sunset on the far side of Frenchman's Bay. You can just see Bar Island.

Getting ready for the fireworks. You can see the masts of the schooner out there.

This was the best fireworks show I've ever seen in Bar Harbor! It was great! My only complaint is the band they had playing needed some more powerful amps--it's a large venue and they were at the bottom of the hill by the town pier, so we could barely hear them. But the show itself was great.

Happy Independence Day!