Fourth of July Highlights

Well, the beach bonfire bonanza was a blast! Carmel was gorgeous, of course, despite being on the cooler side. The beach was much more popular than I thought it would be, but it was really quite amazing to see all of the bonfires that dotted the shore at night! I was also slightly taken aback by how sophisticated some of these beach-goers were. Some groups (like our neighbors) had tiki torches surrounding their site. Others were decked out in full Stars & Stripes glory of red, white and blue! Many of the other groups had their food expertly laid out on long folding tables. Very smart! I realized that after getting some sand in my potato salad.

All in all, it was such a fun and memorable time. Our neighbors were very nice, and the children from the tiki torch group even ended up joining ours to play! When Leilani began playing her guitar and singing praise songs, an older gentleman from the patriotic Stars & Stripes camp came over to listen to the music and expressed his enjoyment of it. In the evening when the fireworks began to go off in Monterey, we could hear them distinctly, although we could not see them due to the thick cloud cover that had rolled in. Luckily, Jimmy and Elaine had thoughtfully bought some glow sticks of various colors to hand out to all the kids. There were even enough for all of the neighbors' kids. In a stroke of brilliance, Jimmy came up with a game that both the kids and adults enjoyed. What he did was gather all the glow sticks together and launched them into the air as high as he could throw them. When the glow stick fell down, they looked like simulated fireworks! The children loved running and finding the glow sticks in the dark, and the adults had their own personal fireworks display. Later on, after chasing Onyx (their dog) who had gotten loose, Eugene said that a group a couple of hundred feet away told him that they enjoyed the glow sticks display as well!

So anyway, here are just a few of the many photos that were taken to highlight our Fourth of July.

This lady loves the beach!

Fun, fun, fun!

the official dog walker of the day

beach buddies?

braving the waves
(This photo makes me think of several shows and movies--Roswell, The Right
Stuff, The Seven Samurai, etc.)

the dauntless crew of wave dodgers

"That wave almost got me!"

baby's first sand castle

beach happy

"Cool Mamas"
(If it had been hot that day, I would have said Hot Mamas!)

beach(ball) beauties

fun and games

bump that ball!

fire watch

beach bums

grubbin'

lounging

strumming

parrying
("The force is strong with this one.")

enjoying