4th of July in Redwood City

Austin and I were both feeling pretty homesick this 4th of July. We were missing backyard BBQs with friends and family and communal neighborhood fireworks. The bay area is not the "it" place on Independence day. 99% of the people we know live in apartment/condos so no backyards and that means no BBQs. Even if you had a house and could BBQ, no one sells fireworks here, so that's lame. Plus, there were only like 3 firework shows in a 60 mile radius. Pathetic. Not even Great America had a show that night, but they did the Saturday before and after, which doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, I know the 4th was on a Wednesday, but come on, you could do a show before and after but not on the actual 4th!? Let's just say we were overall disappointed with the lack of Nation pride in this area.

So since we couldn't eat BBQ hotdogs and hamburgers, I planned on making a homemade apple pie (from scratch) because that was the next most American thing I could think of.  But time ran short, so I ended up making an apple crisp instead, same great flavors, but much much easier.

We originally planned on going to San Fransisco, but since Austin worked that day and also the next morning, we decided to go half way and watch the firework show in Redwood City because we were determined to wave our flags and ooh and awe at the fireworks. We brought the apple crisp, tons of blankets and Maisie's wagon, but the only place we found was a huge courtyard. It was nice and pretty and all, but we were expecting grass, not cement.

We waited an hour for it to get dark enough for the show to start and when it did, we (and at least one hundred other people) realized that the show was not visible from the area we were all conveniently  camped out in. Not only that, but in order to get a good view, we all had to walk over a mile to catch the last 10 minutes or so. The website said anywhere from downtown (which is pretty dang vague) and we were in the most obvious place to be and still couldn't see the show. So hopefully next year, whoever mans the Redwood City website will be a little more descriptive.

So it was an epic failure of a 4th of a July. Only because the bar had been set so high in previous years, but we still laughed and made the best of it. We also watched the firework show at Great America the Saturday before, so all in all it was just fine.

Next year we are determined to be somewhere that really knows how to be patriotic, hopefully with friends, family, delicious grilled food and roman candles (ok I will even settle for some smoke bombs and sparklers after this lackluster 4th).

Remember what we did last 4th?

4th of July weekend 2011 

Tide Pools in Yachats

Giant Spruce Trail

Newport Bay Fireworks

Neskowin Beach

Oh, that was a fun one.

p.s MEMORY ALERT: The 4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays, but I remember Austin telling me (years after the fact of course) that he started falling in love with me on our first 4th of July together way back in 2005. I remember him saying "I saw you with your family and who you truly were and I knew I loved you." I tell you, fireworks bring the best out of a girl. :)