Saturday, July 4, 2009

Happy birthday....

... to CAM! And America apparently. Things are going nuts at the moment. People are yee-haawin' and whoo-hooo'n their heads off. Its a real humdinger of an evening! Picture - if you will - several thousand slightly drunk parents, and their kids, crammed into the marina at Batemans bay, lining the docks yelling and screaming, cussin' and drinking. Pretty interesting? Then pile 'em up - WAAAYYY up with every illegal firework you can imagine and let em go nuts.

Thats pretty much what the evening of the 4th of July's like in Crescent City. Its... an education. It like, I imagine, being in Bagdad during "shock and awe" with all the shock and awe but a slighty reduced fear of imminent death... its bloody crazy, and very fun! Everyone seems to love it and the official fireworks get lost in the groups of youngsters trying to outdo each other with more and more wildly illegal firworks hauled in from Washington state.

4th July is a big deal here - we stopped at a town called Ferndale on our travels North today - and apart from having the best damn burger I've had in a long time, I really noticed the passion people had for the day. From dressing in red white and blue, to parading around town with huge placards proclaiming that big government is the death of freedom, and that "Somewhere in Kenya a village is missing its idiot" - I kid you not -thats a bumper sticker too. Theres beautiful cars parading around and almost every downtown building is done up with bunting and streamers. Was nice to be able to share such a special day with people who found it so important...
...until we got back into the fog that is. The damn cold fog rolls in whenever you even THINK about maybe going close to the ocean. Its dampens the air, chills everything right down, and provides a handy prop for a game we called "guess that official firework" Where several thousand of dollars of fireworks would shoot WAY up into the fog to boom and bluster and leave only a hazy fog induced afterglow of their true self to those watching below...


4th July is of course also Cams birthday - happy birthday Cam from us over here in the states! Lucy - and all of us hope you had a good a day as we did*















*(with less fog)