Kissing the 4th of July Blues Goodbye with Red and White

Well I know I am in the middle of my Connecticut adventures post series, but I am going to take a break for a 4^th of July special.  The 4^th of July in NYC is quite a peculiar phenomenon.  Practically all New Yorkers head to the Hamptons for the weekend to leave a city full of tourists behind; half of whom have no reason to even celebrate the 4^th since they are from out of the country.  To say the least, we were all missing home a little bit by the late afternoon.

Last year's Danville 4th of July parade with the family.

I come from a town where the 4^th of July is not just a big deal, it’s a HUGE deal!  People used to set up their chairs out days in advance for the parade, but now the police do not allow the chairs to come out until 6 p.m. the night before.  Even with this rule in place, people still have the entire street lined by 12 p.m. and will sit in their chairs the entire afternoon.  The parade is always followed by a BBQ at the pool and then a fantastic fireworks show… your typical, all-American 4^th of July.

See you later 4th of July blues...we are adding some red and white and are off to celebrate.

Even though New York is a bit different than our hometowns, we decided that being away from home was not going to ruin our 4^th.  We headed down the street to order some burgers and fries to-go and made our way to Bryant Park.   Hundreds of others had the same idea so we were surrounded by a sea of people having their picnic dinners in the park grass.

Just add hamburgers and a park.

Delicious!

I can't really remember how it started, but somehow we ended up taking a million model shots (as jokes of course) throughout the course of our dinner.  There is only one conclusion to make from it all...Hannah, Shelley, Lindsey, and I should never pursue modeling as a serious career.

We originally were going to make our way down to the waterfront to watch the fireworks celebrating Lady Liberty’s 125^th birthday, but the crowds were so large that we settled for watching the fireworks from Time Square.  This was not quite ideal, but a firework is a firework, even if you can barely see them because of the buildings all around.  We were mesmerized by the show even if the lights from the TV screens were ten times brighter!

After the fireworks we headed to Magnolia Bakery to pick up some good, old-fashion dessert.  I thought that pairing lemonade with a lemon bar would be the perfect combination.  While the two were delicious, about halfway through I had had about all the sour lemoniness I could take.  Note to self:  get lemonade or a lemon bar next time, not both.  The 4^th of July may have not been exactly what I expected, but nonetheless it turned into a wonderful evening and reminded me of just how thankful I am to be living in America!