7/4/2006 - Happy Birthday U.S.A.!!!

For our 10th anniversary, the family rented a cottage by a lake in New Hampshire. In many ways, quite the perfect little vacation. There was much walking, sight seeing, eating in luxury and even a little sleeping. Although only a little.

While I don't live for fireworks, I do live in Boston and have long believed that July 4th = Fireworks. Little did I know what was in store.

For starters, everyone owns fireworks in New Hampshire. I think that even I owned fireworks in New Hampshire. Starting around 5pm every night, they would go off, wherever. Near us, not near us, it's like $10,000 worth of amateur-grade fireworks were shot off every night starting with July 1st.

We asked about the 4th, hoping for a show. We were surprised to learn that our little lake village was the proud owner of the record for "earliest July 4th fireworks" in NH. At the stroke of midnight, the show would begin.

Well, with 2 kids, neither of whom sleeps perfectly, that didn't seem to be an option for us, so around 11, we crawled into bed and called it a night. What we didn't seem to realize is that the fireworks would be fired from within half a mile of our cottage.

At 12:00.01, me, the wife and my eldest sprung awake as the entire cottage rattled. Seconds later, another volley hit and we realized that sleep was done. The 3 of us ambled over to a window and watched. Despite a few trees and cottages in the way, we had a spectacular view. So we watched for a while. The eldest was inclined to try sleeping again, but nothing doing.

Forty minutes later, a tremendous volley shot off signaling that sleep was just around the corner. For several seconds, the 3 of us sat, soaking the tranquility that can only follow ammunitic cacophony. The silence was broken by the siren that we came to recognize as the baby. Perhaps he'd been awake the entire time but too terrified to cry.

With effort, we got both kids back to sleep, and eventually, ourselves.

21,100 patriotic steps tonight,
HIP!
HIP!
HIP!
TIGER!TIGER!TIGER!
SIS!SIS!SIS!
BOOM!BOOM!BOOM!
BAH!!!!!!!!
U!S!A!
U!S!A!
U!S!A!
(Cheers)