First of all, I'm not a big holiday person so the fourth of July ranks pretty low on my entertainment meter. With all the COVID 19 restrictions in place, well, that just made a big mess of things, didn't it? The stupidest thing they did was tell everyone that all fireworks, gatherings and celebrations were cancelled, ugh! You know the best way to ensure a large crowd? Tell them that the Government said no, especially in Oregon, Home Of The Irate You Can't Take My Rights Away Flag Wavers. I don't think I've ever seen so many tacky outfits in one place. They had cancelled an event in a small city here, David and I had some shopping to do, we drove by the park which had a large home made sign that said Don't Tread On Me, a woman walking up to the main gathering area carrying a front yard sized flag and more leather jackets with These Colors Don't Run patches on them then you could shake a stick at.
We kept driving.
The neighbors of course were at thier almost built house, the kids were up and down the road with dirt bikes, mini bikes, etc.....they did have a small party with fireworks but all in all Calamity Jane and her brood were not bad. I had actually expected much worse as this seemed to be her type of holiday but they were done by about midnight, not bad. There were some fireworks throughout the night but it was relatively quiet over all. The funny thing is I don't remember the fourth of July last year at all - but we had only been here for about 3 weeks and were working on the house from sun up to sundown, dropping into bed at night from sheer exhaustion. We didn't see Kim and Steve this weekend, they live in a resort town so they follow the old Hampton Bays Rules which is on all summer holidays you do your shopping during the week, then hunker down at home for the weekend. Kim said tourists were pouring in, you couldn't get up and down the road with all the snarled traffic. They were prepared and spent the weekend brewing beer in the back yard.
We got out on Friday morning, I wanted to go to Astoria and walk around, David wanted to come so that changes the dynamic. He is not good if you don't have a firm plan, "just walking around til you see something" is not his idea of fun. We got there before the shops opened at which point he announced he had not eaten. Sigh. Astoria is not a breakfast place. So the next 45 minutes was me trying to enjoy myself while he worried about breakfast, was that a raindrop, he didn't bring his coat,... - we ended up leaving before the stores opened, the place that serves a sit down breakfast was packed (NO) and that was the end of Astoria. I had thought about going on the boardwalk but Starving Marvin was about to have a melt down. We went across the big ass bridge and drove back with David driving - a mistake.
Me: Look! A graveyard!
D: Did you want to stop - you have to tell me if you want to stop. There's someone behind us, do you want me to just jam on the brakes AND CAUSE AN ACCIDENT. Jesus christ FINE I'll turn around......
Me:................
We ended up having breakfast in Cathlemet which he enjoyed, no, he didn't want to walk around.......so we rode the ferry home - the ferry is pretty cute. It only holds about 10 cars and the ride is 10 minutes. It's also only 9 miles from the house so we were home in good time. And David is a good traveling companion if you have an itinerary, but I think the next time I will be going solo.
