We had a nice Fourth of July. Last year we were in Dallas for the Fourth, but in the apartment, and we were surprised that there didn’t seem to be a big city celebration like there was in Houston (and Pittsburgh, and everywhere else we had lived for that matter). We had to resort to going up to the roof of our parking garage and watching distant fireworks displays.

What a difference a good neighborhood makes. This year, we got up and went for a bike ride, and on our way back got caught up in the Lakewood Fourth of July parade. Lakewood is the nice neighborhood between our house and the lake. Their parade is a good old-fashioned one, with kids on bikes, homemade floats, classic cars and even one art car.

Later, some neighbors had a cookout for a bunch of people, which was fun. And add one more thing we can walk to from our house: fireworks! Lakewood Country Club, which is just a few blocks from our house, has a nice display. We walked over with a bunch of people from the cookout, and it sure was nice to walk right through the traffic jam afterward and be home in three minutes. The cutest thing was our neighbors’ two-year-old granddaughter, who walked over in bare feet, yelling “fire! run! everybody wave flags!”. She got the spirit of it, anyway.
Happy Fourth of July! Everybody wave flags!