It is rainy now (though mercifully only 73 degrees!) but it was a hot and festive weekend. I feel like the holiday weekend started on Thursday night with our Longwood trip. (In the previous post.) We saw fountains and fireworks and heard Copland and Bernstein — very Americana.
Then Friday the little boys were in camp so I did work but it was kind of a strange day — I was getting very few emails. I think most people were off! I picked up my little guy at camp and then my friend Joy’s family came over (they have two kids close to my youngest’s age) and we swam in the pool and had festive drinks she made: cranberry and sprite with blue cool whip on top. How fun! We cooked out, did a few sparkler-type fireworks from Costco, then had a red-white-and-blue dessert Joy brought (cake + berries!). Meanwhile we were watching bits of the Argentina game, trying to brush up on FIFA because…
…my husband and I wound up with tickets to the July 4 (France vs. Paraguay) game! I had vaguely had this in the back of my mind as something we could consider doing, but when I’d checked a few weeks ago (I think when people thought it would be a different match-up) they were quite expensive on Stubhub. Then one of my husband’s colleagues had tickets he couldn’t use so we made arrangements and went to the France vs. Paraguay game at what is being called the “Philadelphia Stadium.” (Lincoln Financial Field aka Eagles Stadium.)
The older two kids (16, 14) babysat and we drove down. I was a little nervous because it was hot and parking/traffic is always crazy. But I guess with the holiday weekend there was limited non-FIFA traffic, and while the pre-paid parking was crazy expensive they may have actually charged a market clearing price for once, because we drove straight downtown (literally 25 minutes door to door), and parked right near an exit in the lot. It was horribly hot walking to the stadium itself and waiting in security. At one point the sun went behind this tiny little cloud and there was an audible sigh from the crowd as the temperature dropped like 5 degrees instantly. And then went back up. I mean, it was 99 degrees on my phone when I looked at it. But we got in the stadium and were relieved to see we were on the shady (west) side. So it was hot but bearable. Idina Menzel sang the national anthem. There was a lot of Fourth of July spectacle. A flyover. Pyrotechnics. Very fun.
The game itself was…OK. I have to admit as an unsophisticated person who doesn’t watch soccer that often that I felt somewhat unsatisfied by a 1-0 game where the one goal was scored on a penalty kick. But I did enjoy seeing some very fancy footwork and spectacular saves. France was definitely the stronger team — almost all the action of the game was in front of Paraguay’s goal, so it makes sense that France won except…it’s is a little odd to have it be like that.
We left as the actual 90-minute game was ending to beat traffic (since there’s always an extra 10 minutes or so added on) but it was perfectly fine. Home in 25 minutes. We ate with the kids and then argued about heading over to the local fireworks — some people thought we should wait as they weren’t supposed to start until 9:15, but my 16-year-old was trying to meet friends and wanted to get over there. So we got in the car at 8:20 and parked and started walking to the park when we started to see fireworks.
Turns out because it was going to storm at like 9:15 the organizers decided to start early. So good we got there! We watched about 15 minutes of fireworks with a spectacular finale and meanwhile the wind was kicking up. The 16-year-old left with friends and the rest of us hustled back to the car just as the rain was starting. We did decide to make a festive stop at Rita’s though.
On Sunday I sang in the “summer choir” at church (a very relaxed kind of thing) and my husband took the little boys fishing. They caught (and released) a few fish. In the afternoon we went in the pool and then he took the younger three to see Minions. I drove down to the airport to get my 19-year-old, who was coming back from Guatemala. He’d spend the week there on a service trip. I wound up waiting in the cell phone lot for a while as his bag took forever to come out (see: why I don’t check bags…but other people travel differently!) and then we had a miscommunication about where he was standing so I passed him and then had to circle the airport again to find him. But we made it home eventually.
Now it is another week of camps and such – the three younger kids are all doing things. We shall see what the older ones do – I am prepared for my kitchen to be used at incredibly random times…
In other news: Big Time has now been out for two months. If you haven’t read my latest book, would you consider picking up a copy? This book is about “A simple path to time abundance” — with practical strategies for moving beyond a sense of time scarcity. We’re now up to 135 reviews on Amazon, so that’s fun. I had to laugh that one of the negative reviews does not seem to actually be about my book as it mentions a story that doesn’t appear anywhere in there…
That sounds like an awesome weekend! We journeyed to a hotel near (but not in) Atlantic City to position ourselves closer to the fireworks in Stone Harbor, NJ. We have a tradition of going out for pancakes, reading on the beach, grabbing WaWa hoagies and Springer’s ice cream, and watching the local fireworks get shot off of a boat in the ocean. We used to rent a house there every year when our kids were younger, and it has become a cherished annual event. Since we had just returned from 2 weeks in Texas with colds, my husband wasn’t initially excited about going. However, the hotel gave us an amazing upgrade to one of their premier suites with a bedroom, large living room and 2 bathrooms, which upped his enthusiasm, The beach was “only” 92 degrees with a pleasant breeze (compared to 102 at home). It was a treat to drive 35 minutes back to the hotel after the fireworks instead of an hour and 35 to home. At the end of the day, he said “that was a great day.”
@BethC- 92 instead of 102 is an improvement! And yes, nice to be close to the action too.