Fourth of July.

Wow. What a week. I spent the 4th (and 5th, 6th, 7th) at the beach. My family goes to Manzanita with friends every 4th of July. We hadn’t been for a couple years because of extenuating circumstances, but that made this year’s trip even more exciting, I think.

Every year, Manzanita has a Fourth of July parade, in which a lot of people participate. Our friends and we usually do, but this year we sat on the side and watched. The participants threw candy. It was a fruitful experience (yum).

Then, of course, were fireworks. It always amazes me how good Manzanita’s firework show is. The coolest thing about them was that we ended up on the beach right under them, instead of parked up next to the road like usual. It’s a lot more exciting to see (and hear) fireworks up close.

I rode my bike a lot, I took a ton of pictures (several that I liked enough to post online, so check my art site over the next few days), went tide pooling, ate good seafood, put together maybe five jigsaw puzzles, hung out with close friends, and ran into a guy who went to my high school (he worked in Manzanita’s teeny grocery store. Weird coincidence coming from a school of 160 people).

Good times with good friends and I didn't even get sunburned. Too bad I’m home now.