More Crowds On The Fourth…

One of the funniest moments of our recent Fourth of July trip was bedtime.  Everyone got their beds ready, and settled in for the night–with five people sleeping in each room.  My husband and I shared the bedroom with our daughter, Brandy, and her family.  Each couple had a double bed, while granddaughter, Madison, slept on the floor on a small mattress.  We were talking back and forth from our beds when suddenly Madison said, “OK, you guys cut it out!”  We all burst into laughter.  Within a few minutes, all was quiet…except for the snoring of the two men.  It was a back-and-forth  “snoring concert”… suddenly my daughter and I burst into laughter once again!

It turned out that our snoring concert from the bedroom disturbed some of those in the living room!  I snore, too, so apparently I joined in the “concert” at some point during the night.  All of the snoring woke Madison up, and she got scared!  My oldest son said he spent the night getting up and down,  turning the air conditioning lower to drown out the snoring noise from the bedroom.  When we all woke up, the condo felt like a freezer!

After cooking and eating breakfast, our family decided that we would, once again, try to take the children to the beach for a little while.  It was  a little after ten when we arrived at East Beach–all of us driving different cars.  Our daughter’s family found a parking place in the parking lot, while the other three carloads of us did not.  The police closed the lot because it was full.  We parked down the street a bit, and were unloading our cars when some lady began yelling at some of us that we couldn’t park there!  It wasn’t posted, and many other cars were parked there, but we moved anyway.  We decided to reload our cars, and go back to Massengale Park because it appeared to be less crowded.

the grandchildren playing at the beach

We finally made it onto the beach around 10:30!  It was already getting crowded, but not as bad as the day before.  However, by the time we left two hours later, people were still coming.  We gladly gave our spots to new people, and went back to the condo for a bite of lunch and another swim.

Later in the day, after lunch and a swim,  half of the family left to go back home, while half of us stayed.  Some had to go to work on Monday, while others insisted that they needed to go home and get some rest before returning to work on Tuesday. 

Those of us who remained,  planned to attend the fireworks in the Village, down by the ocean, that evening.  We had been warned not to try to drive our car down there, and to get there early.  We parked our cars some distance away, and walked down to the Village around 5 o’clock that afternoon–four hours before the fireworks were to begin.

the crowd at the Village--4 hours prior to the fireworks

  Once again, we saw crowds of people everywhere–some of whom appeared to have been there all day long!  We quickly decided that no fireworks were worth fighting that crowd to see, and we went back to the condo!  The rest of the afternoon we watched a steady stream of people walking down to the Village–just as we had watched crowds walking to the beach the day before!  I shudder to think how many people were down there by the time those fireworks began!!!

Later in the evening, my husband decided to walk out to the road in front of our condo,  to see if he could see any of the fireworks.  He noticed a few people in lawn chairs across from our condo, and came back to tell me.  Sure enough, once the fireworks began, we could see many of them–and we didn’t have to fight the crowd to do it! 

The next morning we left that crowded little island, for the uncrowded sanctity of our little country home… There truly is no place like home…Fortunately, all was well when we arrived at home shortly before lunch.  Bobs, the cat,  seemed to have endured my absence a lot better this time, but she was still very glad to see us!

I’ve already decided that our next Fourth of July will be spent at home.  I prefer a backyard bar-b-que and relaxing in the country–over fighting a crowd in the city anyday!  Life here is good, and very uncrowded–and we like it that way!