I know it's been a week and a half since the Fourth of July, but I'm just now getting around to writing the entry about it. I'll try to make it a long one so it's worth the wait! As always, click on the smaller pictures to see a pop-up window with a bigger version. Some of them are really big, so consider yourselves warned.
As you probably already know, the Fourth of July was on a Wednesday this year, right smack dab in the middle of the week. This caused a problem for a lot of working folks, and a lot of people I know scaled down their normal Fourth of July festivities because they had to work the next day. Jim and I decided to go to my grandparents' cottage on Keuka Lake (one of the Finger Lakes in Central New York). Normally my grandparents spend a good portion of each week there throughout the summer, but since my grandmother has been sick, they haven't been going as much. But I knew my brother and sister-in-law (and their dog) were going, and my mom and dad were planning on coming down for the day.
Jim and I got there around noon. Mike, Erin, and Bailey had arrived the night before. Did I mention that Erin is pregnant? I'm going to be an aunt in January! I had bought Erin The Girlfriends' Guide to Pregnancy for her birthday the week before, and she was telling me how much she loved it. It can be a little annoying with all the "how to not get fat" and "how to fool your husband into helping out" crap, but it's the one pregnancy book I've seen that tells it like it is when it come to the physical changes your body goes through, and does so with a sense of humor. So many of the other pregnancy books seem to be about scaring you with all of the things that could go wrong. Anyway, Erin was happy to read that pregnant women often have an increased sensitivity to smells -- she said she went in their basement the other day and nearly gagged because it smelled so musty to her, when it has never bothered her before, and she was glad to see that she's not crazy! When we got there, Mike and Erin were doing some yardwork.
Okay, so I took a lot of pictures of Bailey. She's so pretty! And such a good dog. My family never had dogs before, and my parents are just so taken with her. They dogsit her every day while Mike and Erin are at work, and I don't know what they would do without her. We talked to them about getting a dog of their own, but they don't want to, because they want to be able to go away on trips for weeks at a time now that they are retired, and don't want to have to worry about getting someone to take care of their dog, which I can understand. It's just like grandchildren now -- they get to have a dog without having all the responsibility and expense! I don't know what's going to happen when Erin has her baby. I think Bailey's going to be a little jealous because she's so spoiled.
Anyway, my mom and dad arrived soon enough, and we had hotdogs and hamburgers for lunch. There was a parade in town, but we were all more interested in eating than watching the parade. I only like parades if there are marching bands, anyway, and this one doesn't usually have them. After lunch, we all kind of sat around and talked for a while. My brother was obsessed with the weather. We started calling him "Meterological Mike". He and Erin were trying to figure out whether they should spend the night and get up early the next morning (they both had to work), or leave after the fireworks, and the weather figured heavily in their decision. Anyway, my mom and dad left in the late afternoon because my dad works at the golf course in the summers and he had to water greens or something.
After they left, the rest of us decided to get pizza for dinner, and Erin and I drove to Penn Yan to pick it up. It was nice to have some time to talk to her one-on-one. We don't get that chance often enough. After eating dinner, it was almost dusk, and we wanted to have a fire out front because it was the "Ring of Fire" where all the cottages light flares. We didn't have any flares, but we figured a campfire would work. Plus, Erin had a craving for S'mores, and I can't say that I was fighting that idea. Mike built the fire. Our neighbors came over and offered us some of their extra flares. I think they own a demolition company or something, because they had about a million flares. I saw all these boats gathering down the lake, but didn't think anything of it. Turns out they had a little boat parade! All the boats put Christmas lights on, and paraded down the lake. It was the coolest thing. It must be new, because they never did that when I was a kid.
This is our neighbors' cottage -- it's much nicer than ours! Anyway, you can see how many flares they had. It was insane! And after these burned out, they had a whole backup set. Plus they gave us a bunch, and our neighbors on the other side a bunch. We always kind of miss out on the "Ring of Fire" effect because our cottage is right across the lake from the boat launch and Keuka State Park, so those areas are all dark.
The moon was almost full and it was so pretty on the water. We had thought about taking the boat out to watch the fireworks from the water, but the weather forecast called for thunderstorms, and we didn't want to get stuck trying to haul the boat up on the lift in a thunderstorm, so we decided against it. Turned out that it didn't rain at all. So much for weather forecasts. We all piled in Mike's car and drove towards the school, where the fireworks were, until we got to a point where we could see. Mike and Erin were planning on leaving right afterwards, so we didn't want to get too embroiled in the inevitable traffic jams. The fireworks were awesome. I love fireworks. Oh, I forgot to mention that my brother had a stash of bottle rockets and Roman candles, but he wasn't sure how well they would work because they were kind of old. And he was all nervous to set them off, because he was worried they would go haywire and hit our cottage or the neighbor's boat or something. We finally convinced him to try one, and it worked just fine. He turned around with the biggest grin on his face and said, "I'm going to set them ALL OFF!" It cracked me up.
So, Mike and Erin left and Jim and I went to sleep. The next morning, we decided to stop by Bully Hill, our favorite vineyard, since it's only about fifteen minutes away and we had never been there (although we have enjoyed their wares many times). It was so pretty! We toured the place and then ate lunch in the restaurant, which has a deck that overlooks the lake. I could have stayed there all day. We eventually hit the road and took the long way home so we could have as scenic a drive as possible. All in all, it was a wonderful, relaxing time, and I hope we get to go back down there again soon, although our weekends are filling up awfully fast for the rest of the summer. Next weekend, we go to the Adirondacks for the whole week. The weekend after that, Stacey and Eric are coming to visit. Then we have one open weekend. Then I'm going to Toronto for the 2nd Annual MBTV writers' summit. The last weekend in August, my dad's family is having a get-together. And then it's September!