We had a very fun fourth of July but we had terrible timing.  We had several parties to go to and we hit them all but never anywhere near a time when food was being served.

From nine in the morning til eight at night, all I consumed was adult beverages and a handful of chocolate chip cookies I scrounged from the kitchen of the second lake house we visited as I was being hustled out the door for the next stop.

Into my empty stomach I managed to pour quite a bit o beer, wine and whatever, until I was feeling Happily Independent!  I don't remember doing any such thing, but my legs have  been so stiff the last two days that I really wonder if I was water skiing on the fourth.  I kinda wish I had been.  That would've been cool.

But I'm afraid that sitting in the convertible is what made me ache.

It was a gorgeous day and we took two cars out to Tim and Mary Lou's place.  Jay, Josie and I took the convertible and as we went we wrote down directions so we could call Ty, Katie and Zack and tell them how to follow us.  The sky was blue, the air was hot, the corn was much taller than knee high and the drive couldn't have been prettier.  Rolling hills, green fields, forests and lakes.  Minnesota just may be the prettiest of all the states.  Colorado and Montana are certainly more majestic and awe inspiring, but for just plain, knock your socks off prettiness, I'll take Minnesota.  The trouble with awe inspiring is that when you see it every day, it ceases to inspire awe. 

We left Josie with the family, as it was also her cousin's birthday and the tradition the girls have worked out includes all day at Tim's with boating, tubing and parades, then fireworks and a sleep over at Carolyn's house.  Just because we had more parties to go to doesn't mean Josie was willing to mess with tradition.  She didn't miss us.

We left Tim's before the porketta came off the grill.

The second party we went to was two or three lakes over.  Some dear, old friends have a lake house about ten miles from Tim's.  Ten miles as the crow flies becomes twenty miles when you have to skirt two or three lakes.  Twenty five miles when there's construction which mapquest didn't take into account, but it's a good thing Mary Lou gave you a map and you're able to throw the computer's directions out the window and follow the straightest lines you can find to the right place. 

Why does mapquest always give you the most convoluted route to where you want to go?  It had us jigjagging through Annandale (we're lucky we didn't get stuck in the middle of their parade) when we could've stayed on ct rd 3, turned right on 101 and been to the second house in fifteen minutes.  That's the route I gave Katie and Zack when they called from Tim's, ready to join us.  They would've gotten to Flip and Debbie's in no time if they hadn't immediately turned right where I told them to turn left.

My kids are smart, but they don't know left from right.

The funny part is that now that he's been there, Zack could find his way back to either place in the dark, but he can't follow simple directions.  Katie can't find the bathroom in her own apartment.  Seriously.  She peed in the refrigerator once.

Okay, she was three years old and sleepwalking at the time, but still.

Flip and Debbie have been friends of ours for twenty five years.  They're the kind of friends where if we don't see each other for a year or so, no one notices the gaps when we get back together.  Their lake place is beautiful and the party was filled with kids from toddlers to young adults.  There was ladder ball, wiffle ball, jet skiing, tubing and just about every fun 4th type of activity imaginable.

But again, we had to hit the road before the grill got fired up.  Jay had already cut me off, as I was doing the wiggle dance at the top of the dock.  It was on the way through the kitchen, saying our goodbyes that I discovered the container of cookies.  I can't believe I didn't steal the whole thing. There was a pan of special K bars I'm pretty sure I could've smuggled out, too.  I could've jammed the pan down my socks like Sandy Berger.  Only I wasn't wearing any socks.  Who wants to eat special K bars you pulled out of your socks, anyway?  Besides me, I mean.

Driving back to town we followed a large rain storm all the way in.  It was never raining where we were, but the roads and fields were wet, the hot sun made the country side steam and after twenty miles of that, we were soaking wet from the humidity and freezing cold.  The sun was warm, but the temperatures were fluctuating wildly from hill top to low country.

Eventually, after many miles, many friends and many parties, we threw some ribeyes on the grill and finally got some food in us around 8:00.  I had sobered up by then but was barely able to stay awake long enough to watch the fireworks from our front yard.  Last year we had a crowd of friends join us but this year we hadn't thought we would be home in time.  We're such light weights.  We can't stay up late enough to watch fireworks an hour from home. 

I was so happy to be able to crawl right into bed when the finale in Edina was over.  The show went on in the park a while longer, but I'd seen enough.

It was a fun fourth.

 

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