Happy Fourth, Austin Style!

There's nothing like celebrating your country's independence with some of her most choice citizens - the drunkards. Emily got to experience this first-hand on Saturday evening. We headed out to Auditorium Shores/the Palmer Events Center around 8 pm on Saturday (past both Caleb and Emily's bedtimes - poor little things) and walked around listening to the Austin Symphony play patriotic music and just looking around. We didn't take many pictures, but hopefully these will give you a feel for what it was like.

We headed back before the fireworks started but got caught on the pedestrian bridge going over the river on the way home. It is not where we would have chosen to watch the fireworks, but the bridge was too crowded to walk any further, especially with a double stroller. Poor Emily had been scared out of her wits a little earlier by some very nearby cannon blasts (accompanying the 1812 overture) and was on the verge of a panic attack when these fireworks started. She calmed down once Joseph picked her up and pointed out what was going on. We were standing between two separate parties of very intoxicated men and women who were yelling stupid things back and forth that they seemed to think were very witty and clever. I remember one very confused man looking around the bridge wondering where the symphony was because he'd heard the fireworks were supposed to be set off to music. We were also standing behind and downwind from a man with a fancy camera and a cigar hanging out of his mouth. The fireworks display was fantastic though and the jog back home was invigorating... until we got home and went inside and realized how hot it had been outside. I had really been thinking the weather was almost downright cool before I went inside and froze. Then I went outside again and thought, "this is not okay. How were we jogging and pushing a big stroller in this weather?" I checked the internet and it was still 94 degrees at 11 pm with forty-something percent humidity. Ugh.


It was a fun experience to be downtown and to hear the music and see the fireworks though. And Emily's almost two - about time for her to experience a drunken party, right?