4th of July

My mum took this picture of Mike and I outside our house on 4th of July morning. It was the hottest day of the year so far, I think, and already broiling by 9am! My mum wanted to put this picture in an album for us to take to China. Maybe QiuQiu will recognize the house and the dogs a bit by the time we come home!

We headed downtown for brunch at a place called The Market. We had been hoping for crepes, but Lodo was a ghost town after the parade...apparently everyone had already skipped town for the weekend! This was one of the few places open for business! We had huge piles of eggs and some of the best coffee I've had outside of Europe.

I love the tiles and the chairs.

Mum and her son-in-law, relaxing over the meal.

Mike had to work for most of the day, and mum and I stayed indoors to escape the heat, building a toy bench for Flynn's room. My mum is handy that way! Me, I got a blister on the palm of my hand from too much screwdriver-wielding. I'm less tough than she is, I guess!
By nine pm we decided it was safe to go for a bike ride and look for fireworks. Still, it had only cooled down a couple of degrees! The sunset over the lake was gorgeous though.

We had missed the Edgewater fireworks on the 3rd, but we discovered that the 4th is "free-for-all fireworks day" at the lake and, really, all throughout the neighborhood. It was quite amazing! There were fireworks being set off on the bike path, in the parking lots and on the lawns. They were every which way you looked, and we had to dodge squibs as we rode. The whole town smelled like cordite. It was a little scary, a little exciting, and really very beautiful!

A set firing up in a parking lot on the North side of the lake.