July 4th

Happy Birthday America, Missy & Joel!
The rain stopped, the sun came out and we had a glorious 4th of July week-end. We drove to the small town of Ayer, near the campground, on Saturday afternoon, sat on the sidewalk and watched the "July 4th Parade." Mostly kids on their decorated bikes, firetrucks from all the surrounding towns and anyone that has on old car! Reminded us of Hanover, imagine the same scene was played out in small towns across the country.
The Community Boating party (we had tickets) started at 4pm so we rode the subway to Boston (no more $40 parking for us!) and made our way to the shores of the Charles River. Community Boating is an organization that promotes sailing - many sailboats of all sizes are available for lessons. They sell tickets to a catered dinner on July 4th and everyone sits on their docks, or in one of the boats - they have a DJ until the Boston Pops start playing and then a local radio station broadcasts it so we heard the concert too. The Esplanade and Hatch Shell, where the Pops perform, was right next door to Community Boating. We were surprised at how small the park is - no wonder people wait in line all night to get in for the annual event. Actually, there were people waiting in line to get into the dress rehearsal on Friday night! Neil Diamond was the guest performer and the concert was wonderful. Four F-15's from the Air National Guard did a "fly by" just as the concert started. They play the
"1812 Overture" right before intermission, fire the cannons and give a small fireworks display - just to give you a hint of what is coming! The fireworks were indescribable and awesome! Would you believe the family next to us on the dock were from San Antonio! We had such a great time - a once in a lifetime experience we will always remember. The trip home was also memorable! Thousands of people trying to leave the city at the same time, but the police and transportation employees did an excellent job of managing the crowd and getting people on the subways. The biggest problem was getting out of the parking garage at the end of the line! Got home at 2am - way, way past our bedtime!!