After a very cold and rainy spring and early summer it finally feels like summer is suppose to feel like and just in time for the 4th of July Holiday too! Since Boston is the birthplace of the American Revolution, the 4th of July weekend is a big event. Normally almost 1 million additional people descend upon our city to roam the streets that Paul Revere, Sam Adams (yes, he was a real man and not just a picture on a beer bottle), John Hancock and the other founding fathers roamed, hear the Declaration of Independence read from the Custom House balcony just like it was read on July 8th, 1776, and watch the USS Constitution go out for it's turn-around cruise during Boston Harborfest. The holiday culminates on the 4th when the Boston Pops Orchestra plays the 1812 Overture complete with cannons and fireworks on the Esplanade. It is one of the biggest 4th of July celebrations in the US and probably the most famous.
Normally, MBH and I hibernate this weekend. It isn't that we aren't patriotic but rather after all these years living in Boston, unless we have out of town guests who haven't been to Boston for the 4th, we just prefer not to join the throngs of people downtown. But, since the weather has been so wretched the past few weeks, we decided not to pass up the opportunity to enjoy the sunny skies and warm temperatures. After a later than normal start to our day, we got off the subway at the Charles Street station and walked through the Public Garden...right into the middle of the 90th international convention of the Lions Club parade. There were marching bands, units dressed in native costumes of their country (who knew that Japan had the second largest number of Lions Club in the world?). We wandered through Back Bay and the South End and had a late lunch at Legal Seafoods in Copley Plaza. After walking through the shops at the Prudential Center, we decided to go home and escape the heat and humidity of the late afternoon. All and all a very nice summer day.
And when we returned home, we found that LB had already found a perfect way to beat the heat. He was lying on his side, feet propped up on the French doors between our living room and MBH's study on the hard wood floor next to his scratching pole. During the summer, if we can't find him, this is normally where we can find him; the coolest spot in the house.
