Fourth of Jul-Ivars

The year Jamee was 17, we decided that we would spend our Independance Day in Seattle with the thousands of others at the Fourth of Jul-Ivars celebration. Mom watched Jesse for me since at that point in life he still hated fireworks, and we took off for the day. In usual fashion, Jamee and I were in jeans and t-shirts with hoodies. It is July in Seattle - why on earth would we need a coat??? For the rain you say? Well we might have wanted to consider that since it ended up raining all day and into the night as well as the temperatures only reaching into the mid 60's. But no, we are true Seattlites and we don't believe in coats and unbrellas!! So, knowing that the fireworks start at around 10pm, we head out around 10am. This is because we are also going to play tourist today. First stop, Pike Place Market. We wander around and look at everything slowly working our way down towards the waterfront and hey, as long as we are in the market we are dry. Besides there are so many unique shops in the market that I for one can still spend hours just looking around in there. So, we wander and watch people and giggle and point and laugh. So, we make our way to the waterfront and hit all the great tourist spots - Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe, The Bay Pavilion, The Aquarium (at least the free parts of it) and just keep working our way up the waterfront to Myrtle Edwards Park where the entertainment and fireworks are. At one point along the way we stop for hotdogs at The Frankfurter and Jamee is grossed out that I am eating sauerkraut on mine. We also decide to stop and get a mocha - well Jamee who has never had anything like an expresso or mocha decides she just wants espresso. I told her that what she wanted was a mocha but she was very insistant. So I let her have one. And I will say that she did drink every drop. But she has not ordered one since!!! So, now we are cold, wet, full of caffiene, and it is only like 6pm - we still have 4 hours till the fireworks!! Time to find a place to sit down and eat slowly! Luckily there is a pizza place right by where we are going to be watching the fireworks. So we kill the better part of 2 hours "eating" and then decide to go get a prime spot to watch the fireworks. We decide on up by the railing in the parking lot area because that way we dont have to see over peoples tents in the park, we are close to the port a potties, and we are close to the trolly stop to take us back to near the bus stop to go home when it is over. So, we grab our spots and chill. We people watch, we gossip, we laugh and talk and just have a good time. And as the time gets closer lots of people get their spots all around us so it warms up some :) By the end of the night I have snuggled into the guy behind me and am wearing his leather coat. And the fireworks were awesome! Neither of us had ever been to a fireworks show where you are front and center and it felt like you could just reach out and touch the pretties. When the fireworks were done it was time to get on the trolley - along with 10 thousand other people. So they sardine'd us into the trolley and off we went back into downtown seattle to catch the bus back to renton. All in all a great adventure of a day and night. So, until next time, keep adventuring yourselves,

peace and luv,

laura