Tuesday 4th July – Independence Day

The suggestion had been put forward that Tash and I should try to break away from the house for a girls’ night out at some point.  However, because of the drama of Eleri injuring herself on the first night and us opting to go out on the boat during the evenings, we decided to ‘do brunch’ today instead.  But when I asked Tash what time she wanted to go for brunch and she replied ‘we need to go early, how about 8am?’  I responded with ‘that is very much breakfast if you ask me, but okay’.  The two of us snuck away and enjoyed a proper USA breakfast of omelette, fruit and then massive chocolate pancakes at a local diner.

Back at the house it was a logistical challenge to get bikes, four children and six adults into two cars to head off for a bike ride. But we succeeded! The weather was lovely and we managed to stay together safely to reach Farnborough for a well-deserved ice cream.

The bike riding team

We returned to the house about 130pm and Simon and I had some urgent holiday admin to do.  One of these was to book a whale watching tour on the Cape (yes, another one) for the following day.  We can’t help ourselves – they have almost promised us humpbacks so I guess we’ll see.  The other matter related to our US finale – we are squeezing in a trip to New York City for a few nights to cheer us up once we have said farewell to the RV.  And there’s only one mode of transport that will do as far as Simon is concerned so we’re on the lookout for Mustang deals.  We had an absolute result – by changing the pick-up location from the airport to a location nearer Tash’s place we saved $100… which’ll just about pay for the whales!

Olwyn tucking into her large ice cream

Eleri getting patriotic

Next on our busy July 4^th itinerary was making it to Hyannis street parade. Timing it to perfection, we bagged some kerbside seats and yet more ice cream just prior to the start of the entertainment. 

 

Our favourite float - a roller derby team encouraging everyone to 'Make America Skate again'!

 

It was a baking hot afternoon, you really felt for those participants in the head-to-toe fancy dress outfits (right)!  Once the parade finished we wandered down to the town green where there was plenty of much-needed shade in front of the bandstand for us to sit in.

 

Once the kids’ attention span was over we headed home where the other guests had the BBQ on (I can thoroughly recommend the service here!)  We ate our fill and there was even pineapple upside down cake supplied for dessert.

Today being a National holiday and finding ourselves in great company, it suddenly felt like the right time to break open our bottle of bubbly to celebrate.  We selected one of the sun decks as a suitable location to pop the cork and shared the contents with as many people as possible. 

Once the younger occupants of the house were in bed it was then time to wrap ourselves in blankets to sit out and enjoy the Independence Day fireworks from across the bay.  What an amazing way to celebrate such an important day.  This time last year I could never have predicted being here having had such a memorable travelling experience.  We even had sparklers for the occasion.  

Happy 4^th July USA! 

Tash.... probably writing her name with sparklers. What else can you do?!