The Fifth of July

fireworks-2
Originally uploaded by "O62"
(Pic of the floating fireworks I said
were "neat" ... clearly I'm not a
real New Yorker!)

Our last Fourth of July in NYC was pretty great and low key. We started with church, and cousin Kellie met us there. It was another loooooong service, but we were in a fan's path, so it was comfortable and the songs were good, sermon too.

Then caught the crosstown bus and headed to the Upper West Side, home of brunch-y places. We ate at a funny place called Fred's ... and I geeked out on some delicious-o coffee. We parted ways after that, but plans to meet up for fireworks later.

Kellie was at our apartment at 7, and we scooted over to Hudson River Park to wait for the dark. Hanging around and listening to hipster doofus conversations, enjoying the warmth. Crazy kids running around and wanting to try juggling like Shawn. He even let them try. One of them said "You must be some kind of juggling expert!"

Finally the fireworks began, and we hastily threw together our picnic blanket and stadium seat backs and ran to the sidewalk to watch the light show over the river. It was really good -- solid 20 minutes of lights. We were too far south to hear the music, but good none-the-less. Our favorite moment was just after the show started and some goomba turned to his buddies and said "All right, I'm going to the bathroom now." That sent Kellie and me into a fit of giggles!

Being a real New Yorker, Kellie was able to navigate us around the crowds, even in the wind-y crazy streets that are the West Village. We got back to the apartment, enjoyed some AC and watched the fireworks again -- this time on TV. I recorded the special. We watched Justin Bieber ... he wasn't even AT the show -- it was pre-recorded (in Prospect Park?) ... AND HE'S CANADIAN. Geez. Shawn liked LeAnn Rimes, although I'd never heard her version of "Swinging," I like that tune a lot. (Looked it up, originally John Anderson.)

And here we are at the Fifth of July, an anti-holiday first celebrated by me seven years ago. "Good times." Anyway, great that there's no work/it's a federal holiday and we've already had our revelry so we can just relax. Of course the museums and other outstanding items on our "things to do in NYC" list are closed, so we're going to do a little shopping. Shawn needs a new pair of shoes! And hopefully we'll end the weekend with another cousin visit. We plan to have dinner tonight with Lisa!