The 4th of July in Maine!

Somehow I managed to get the 4th off from Lowe's...don't know HOW I did it, but I took it and I'll take it again next year if I can.:) We made a great weekend of it, even if I DID have to work on Sunday (which was pointless, BTW because it was SO slow). We went out to Schooner on Friday night to meet up with Boo and Lee even though I was totally exhausted (even after a 3 hour nap). It was good, though...Robert got to be social and I saw my old friend Muffy (among other people). It was fun. Spent the night at mom's, left for the Round Pond Parade at 11am with Pj. NOTE: I don't think many people understand the love I have for the Round Pond Parade. Up until I was 22 I went to the Round Pond Parade EVERY year. I haven't been in 5 years! The parade is basically a free-for all for crazy people, political zealots, restaurants and businesses advertising, kids just wanting to dress up, old cars, etc...anyone can enter a float in the parade-all they have to do is show up.:) As my friend Becca said, "I didn't realize how many people just kinda jump in and join the parade as it goes along.":) LOVE IT! This was Robert's first RP Parade and I was totally psyched to show him how awesome it was.

Things have changed a bit tho...no more parking on the side of the road wherever you can find a spot-they actually put up signs so you can't park! We had to drive all the way up to Buzz's little house on Back Shore to park...but that was fine because it was a GORGEOUS day with lots of sun, but no bugs and not too hot. We got a pretty good spot on the King Row lawn and Robert managed to acquire his own personal commentator in a summer person who happened to be standing by and heard Robert's accent.:) That's always how it is with Robert.:) The parade wasn't nearly as good as it used to be in the past, but it was still creative and entertaining with a little political flare, much more patriotism, and some good humor. Many of the same people who have always done it were still in it and Robert is all ready planning on becoming one of the regular RP Parade floaters.:) It was great! Getting OUT of RP after the parade was a disaster, but riding along with the top down blasting Luke's music makes it a lot easier to wait in traffic.:) Especially when Luke grabbed on and rode up the hill with us. HA!

We had some good food at mom's and spent some quality time with PJ, which I really needed: we watched some of our old videos of the plays we were in in Junior High and that highly entertained Robert, let me tell you!

And, finally, the day ended with the fireworks in Damariscotta, which we were able to watch from Emily and Nick's boat which was TOTALLY awesome. I've never watched fireworks from a boat before and, even just parked at Schooner Landing, it was great to watch them from there! And then all we had to do was walk back up the docks to Schooner to hang out with our friends for the rest of the night...it was great fun, greatly entertaining, awesome to see all my old friends I hadn't seen yet...I think we have really made some awesome re-connections with people and Robert feels really comfortable with all my friends. It makes me so happy that he is finally able to meet everyone and connect the names with the faces! It was a a great day and night and the fact that, once we DID leave (just before the bar closed at 1 am) all we had to do is walk to the car behind DB&T because we were lucky enough to get a parking space downtown. Awesome! I'll try to put together a slide show once I get the photos organized.:) Otherwise they're in Kodakgallery for viewing, of course:).