"In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved." - FDR -- Happy 4th of July!!

Happy Fourth of July!

Today we went to the historic Garner cemetery in Newport, NC to see my maternal grandparents' headstones.



After, we headed over to the "sound house" (right on the Bogue Sound) where we go every year for the fourth. There was boating, cooking, cornhole games, drinks, snacks, good conversation, and of course a beautiful view:






We also got to play with Gina and Jeff's new puppy, 3 month old yellow lab Katie. She was super fun and cute!:



Around 6:30, we ate dinner, which was an authentic NC "pig pickin'"! The pig had cooked all day, and was slathered in homemade sauce while cooking and before serving. Yum!!

Before "pickin'":


After "pickin'":




The meat was soooo good; tender and juicy, w/ just enough spice! Along with it there was vegetables, coleslaw, corn bread, apple salad, baked beans, fresh lima beans (from the garden today!), chips and cheese dip, and lots of desserts like key lime cake, brownies, chocolate cake, and blueberry cobbler. Yummmmm!! Everything was great!! Ate, talked, enjoyed the AMAZING weather, and got my butt kicked in cornhole. Dangit!

After we ate, made s'mores, and cleaned up a bit the sun was setting and it was time for fireworks.



Darren and Kevin were in charge, as they are every year (it's Kevin's house), so we were ready for their expertise! I put the chairs up right near the dock (last year Michael and I sat up on the dock with them, but I didn't feel like it this year) where the water and land meet. We put our foldout chairs there and waited for the show. Little did we know that we'd get rained on by ash!! All of a sudden, after three or four in a row were shot off, we noticed lots of little particles showering us. Ha!! Laughing like idiots, we're still looking straight up at it all with our mouths wide open, the realization of which made us laugh even harder until I had tears streaming down my face and couldn't even make any noise.

(The video is sideways:)


Around that time, two fireworks shot sideways off into the bushes, and about ten seconds later we hear crackling. The bushes had caught fire! So, the fire brigade (Kevin and Darren), marches down and gets the garden hose to extinguish it, and everything's fine. I was able to capture video of it, though, for posterity, of course. :)



Enjoyed the rest of the fireworks, hugged everyone goodbye, and headed back to the hotel.

Tomorrow: "On the road again..." - back to Athens, GA! :)