The Fourth!

Alright...here's my Fourth of July recap. First, the cast of characters:
Brother, Sis-in-law, Me, Nathan.We met up early afternoon and had a picnic at the Public Garden which is probably one of my favorite places in the entire city. Yesterday it really wasn't too crowded, but there was an issue with people insisting on trying to feed squirrels out of their hands! I know Mass General is close, but really? Why have a squirrel chew on your thumb?

We then proceeded to walk all over the city as the pictures below indicate.

While we were walking through Back Bay, we passed the offices of the American Meteorological Society. So here you are, weather geeks.
While we were hanging out at Boston Harbor, this boat came by to re-enact the Boston Tea Party! Mmmhmm...just like the original, except no one was wearing a feathered headdress and the "boxes of tea" were tethered and pulled back in after each participant so everyone could re-enact a bit of history!
Also while we were at the harbor, we got to see a wedding (lovely) and the Constitution fired its cannon. This scared us like no other, was a grand, unexpected kick-off for the beginning of the couple's ceremony and scared all of the small children around who proceeded to freak out! We also got a call from our crazy, but much-loved, Aunt Hilda in NC who asked if we were having some tea at Boston Harbor. Truth be told, I was sipping a chai (a colonialist import if ever there was one). Was that unpatriotic?

We ambled over to Government Center for some swag (stuff we all get--loved by Sis-in-law and Nathan--apparently not something Brother and I picked up genetically) and Sis-in-law and I had our pictures taken with the guy dressed up as a BlackBerry and we thought fondly of that time in The Office Michael invites the BlackBerry to his party.
The best part of that picture is that a few minutes later the BlackBerry's uncostumed assistant asked if we wanted a picture and, in all honesty, we could say that we already did it.

Here's Nathan and I getting ready to start our day at the T-stop. It was drizzly and cold, but cleared up nicely.

So before I go on with un-Fourth of July pictures, I'll tell you the rest of our adventure. We ate a delicious dinner at The Upper Crust (and discussed the lack of excellent pizza in Boston--seriously, pizza is a big deal for Brother and I and we both left great places in NC) and then went to join 900,000 fellow revelers to hear the Pops. We found a spot by a speaker and proceeded to get really, really cold, so Sis-in-law and I pulled a Boston and went and bought Dunkin Donuts coffee. Mmmm...Boston. While we were gone, Brother and Nathan got to see a drunk guy try to fight 6 National Guardsmen at once. Hate that I missed that.

The Pops was great, Rascal Flatts was disappointing (the sound was bad for them) and the fireworks were unbelievable. At the end we all felt sick from their organ-rattling proximity and the smoke that was so voluminous is even covered the top of the John Hancock building!

The T ride home was a zillion times better than I thought it would be (we sat down) and we were home right at midnight.

So the rest of these pictures are from are fun weekend in NC when the Princess and EnviroCop got hitched.


Unfortunately all of my pictures with people at the wedding look terrible (and, truth be told, the NC heat and humidity was not agreeing with my hair), but above is the view from the top deck of Princess' family's lake house where the ceremony took place. That house is in my top ten happiest places in the world. We're so glad we could be there.

And these crazy kids might come see us soon. Their expressions pretty much sum up the rest of the weekend:

So that was our Fourth. How was yours?