Today’s a big day for America, and we celebrated by watching the annual Bigfork parade. There’s a fun small-town feel to it, where you generally know at least half a dozen people in the parade, and as you wander the streets you meet another dozen people you know in the crowd. Kyra and Pepper wore their cool cowboy hats (I’ll have to get one someday) and we were decked out in our red, white, and blue.
Afterward we went out on the lake and headed to what we call the Picnic Islands, which are a few tiny islands in Flathead Lake where we can beach our jet skis. We enjoyed a little picnic and watched the boats cruising up and down the lake.
As we were getting ready to load the jet skis onto our trailer at the dock, a man came up to me and asked if he could rent them for a little while. He was visiting from out of state as part of a family reunion, and several of his young nieces and nephews had never been on a jet ski. We agreed to let them take turns for a while, and they had a great time zooming around Yellow Bay. Our payment? Some slices of watermelon from their picnic dinner. It was fun to see their excitement and brighten their day.
We went home and ate burgers, potato salad, and deviled eggs: a proper Independence Day meal. Then we hopped online and played board games with Alex, who was home alone since the rest of his family had gone south for the week.
It was an all-around great time, and I’m always grateful for this amazing country. Happy Fourth!