The Fourth- and an upgraded parade

The girls and I drove to the coast to celebrate the fourth of July with my mom. (Sadly Sandi had to work.)  After a 6 mile early morning run before Sandi left for work, we got an early start and headed toward the ocean and the fog. 

I'm fairly sure my mom thinks she has some sort of good parking spot karma.  Whenever we are hunting for a spot she says, "I KNOW we are going to get a good one.  The perfect spot is here for us."

This new-agey parking mantra, led me to take my parallel parking skills to a whole new level.

The girls were really excited about the parade and these flags -  more so about the acquistion of something new than the patriotic meaning I think I could safely say. But still, they looked adorable.

After having watched the Bangor/Brewer parade the last few years (and getting choked with fire engine after ambulance after random cars filled with people) I can say this parade beat the pants off of Bangor's.  There was a little bit of everything, including hardy amounts of candy throwing and, yes, a few beauty queens and even a beauty KING.

I'm always a sucker for an elderly marine.

We saw giant lobsters,

Fred Flinstone's rear end,

Hello freaking Kitty,

a group marching to support Obama (who were met with equal cheering and booing interestingly enough),

and even the peace and justice people made it out.  I tell you, I am a fan of the granola Fourth of July parade.

Maya got really into the flag waving. I think maybe she thought the amount of candy thrown was in direct proportion to the amount she waved it.

We drove to Birchpoint State Park (Lucia Beach) where you pay a fee on the honor system and, today anyway, enjoy the thunderous surf that you can hear but barely see through the fog. We ate a picnic lunch and played on the beach for a while and then headed into Camden to listen to a patriotic band playing in the amphitheater. It was a tad boring, with the majority of the audience age 85 and over, and they would have been much better suited in a parade, but the kids were mostly content gorging themselves on their cache of candy.

Thanks Grandma for a super fun day!