A Grand Fourth!

We had a really nice day for the 4th holiday. Jon and I managed to get the girls to the beach for a few hours in the morning--not very crowded, to our amazement. The hazy/cloudy weather must have kept the lake-lovers away.
Then, we had a small cookout at our house. It was just us and one other family. Had a nice time just relaxing and staying away from the crowds. They had to go home early, so it was just the four of us for the annual fireworks. Again, we avoid the crowds at the park/bridge by going to Goff Hill, which gets closed down every July 4th, and get a great view of the fireworks over part of the city.
Here are a few pics that show what I thought made the 4th so great!
Cailyn and Erin with the Portland Sea Dogs' mascot, Slugger. The home team got spanked good, but we had a great time at our first ballgame!








I caught the family just as the first rockets launched. Both the girls loved the fireworks this year!








I didn't have the tripod, so the fireworks shots were only so-so, but here's one of the explosions.








Fortunately, my darling husband understands how much I love Keith Lockhart (oops, I mean the Boston Pops Orchestra). Although Jon loves to tease me about it, he's a good sport. But, seriously, the man in this picture makes watching an orchestra sheer bliss! I had the good fortune to see him live during a holiday tour in Augusta. I was crippled with pain from a bad reaction to (get this) pain meds for my back, but I didn't care. I sat on a metal bleacher for 2 hours, but I didn't care!!! One day, I'm going to see him again--without pain! LOL Then, I'll be able to truly express my deep appreciation for "fine music". For now, I had to settle for an hour long show on CBS, which was disappointing because the telecast used to be on cable and ran over 2 hours! Network TV hacked the show to pieces and a lot of the charm was lost, not even considering the lack of airtime for my music man...:( Still, some Keith is better than none. Hope everyone had a booming Fourth!