A Fireworks Tradition

Since childhood, I've loved watching fireworks. In a mid-sized city, it was easy to park the car, spread the blanket and spend the evening munching on junk food and listening to live music at Ah-Nab-Awen park with my Dad until the show began. The fireworks show quickly became a father/daughter tradition.

While living in the Bay Area has brought a number of changes, one of the hardest adjustments was Fourth of July celebrations. First of all, it's supposed to be HOT on Fourth of July. Thankfully, we lucked out with a beautiful day today... but it's not always the case. Secondly, watching the fireworks in San Francisco has never been very appealing-- especially with the threat of fog (which, by the way, makes things chilly). And I'm still getting used to the fact that I can't buy sparklers at the store, but our neighbors can set off fireworks at 2 a.m. all week and nobody stops them.

But I'm happy to report that we've found a new fireworks tradition! For the past two years we've gone to the July 3rd Oakland A's game where they put on a fabulous fireworks show set to music. Have I mentioned that I'm a sucker for fireworks set to music? From our inexpensive seats we watch all the fireworks we want and can still make it home on BART in 10 minutes. And on the actual holiday, we can usually catch a glimpse of the fireworks around the bay from a hill in the neighborhood which definitely beats fighting the crowds in the city. Next year we'll just have to bring my Dad!

Happy Fourth of July!

RAIN!

The first rain in MONTHS has arrived! It smelled so good today coming out of the BART station - I'd trade smelly BO for wormy and moist any day! In all honesty, summers in the Bay Area can get a little boring - the same weather everyday with some fog thrown in here and there for fun.

In the land-of-two-seasons it is so refreshing to experience the transition. I saw more happy wet people today than I have in a long time.

We're headed to Yosemite this weekend to freeze our asses off in an unheated canvas tent cabin. Hopefully October will scare off all of the tourists and we'll have the whole place to ourselves - haHA! Expect a full report with pretty pictures when we get back.

Our "might-do" list for this weekend

Fun events this weekend:

• California Coastal Cleanup Day - Grab your latex gloves and save the whales! Saturday Sept. 16 9AM - noon.
• Go for a hike! - maybe we'll take this weekend off since we went last weekend. Don't want to be too outdoorsy.
  
• Catch the Michigan vs. Notre Dame game! Go Blue! This one's an afternoon game - I can't wait for the 9:00am Booze n' Eggs games later in the season.