Fourth of July

For many years, we spent Independence Day in the best town in the world. On the 4th in Lander, two major considerations really make the town stand out. First, the city council waives the open container law for the day, which means that you can buy a bloody Mary from the Lander Bar and drink it while watching the parade at 10 o'clock in the morning, or you can leisurely sip a beer that was handed to you by the rowdy crowd celebrating their 10-year high school reunion on the back of a flatbed semi-trailer at that same parade.

But really, the most amazing thing on the 4th of July is that fireworks are legal in town, all day long. This is a picture of this year's celebration, but it's indicative of every other Independence Day celebration I've attended:

There are sporadic fireworks all day, but the big ones really start in earnest when the sun goes down and continue for two hours or more. (Photo credit: some random person on the Interwebs.)

That beautiful, crazy town.

This year for the holiday, R and I headed to New Jersey where his family has a little house on a lake. It's a pretty humble house, but the lake itself and the surrounding woodland are an amazing oasis in an otherwise hectic world - so peaceful and serene:

The view from the deck of the house.

R's family were all at the lake, including lots of cousins, so he was able to see quite a few people that he hadn't seen in decades. We heard shouts from children at neighboring docks, and the harmonized chorus of the cousins singing from the screened-in porch of the house next door. We sipped wine on the deck and breathed in the scent of the water and the trees. R and I went out in the canoe for a leisurely look at the surrounding forest, a peek at the dam at the far end of the lake, and a glimpse of the fish in the shadowy shallows. At dusk we saw flashes of fireflies in the dark places under the trees, and steady starlight in the dark places over our heads. The weather was cool and perfect.

The entire experience was absolutely nothing like the holiday in Lander.

But, you know, both equally express the sentiment of the day. Americans can be loud and boisterous in celebrating freedom. We can be quietly contemplative and grateful, too. Occasionally, we have moments of both in the space of minutes.

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It's a five hour drive to the lake, so we headed back to DC fairly early on Sunday. We checked Yelp for things to do along the way and decided to make a stop at Hershey Chocolate World. Decadent, I know. Mr. Hershey was a pretty impressive guy (endowing a school for orphans to the tune of 30% of Hershey's profits in perpetuity - the school now has billions in the endowment).

R, in line for the production tour. (Here's a topic for you: We don't know the other people in this photo. Ever wonder how many other people's photos you're in? Discuss.)

Only four more weeks in the U.S. before we head out on our first adventure with the Foreign Service! It's really getting real, yo.