July 1st, 2016
By Jason Parr
The Fourth of July is my favorite day of the summer. From what we wear to what we eat, my friends and family are “all in” when it comes to this once-a-year festivity. This year the Fourth of July lands on a Monday… I squirmed a little when I spotted that on my calendar. As a general rule of thumb, Mondays are not my favorite days of the week, so how would celebrating on a Monday be? On second thought I realized that not even a Monday could detract from how fun this upcoming holiday is going to be. Everything that I love about the Fourth of July is summed up in four words: family, friends, food, and fireworks.
Family Even in the summer when school is out, my family of five has a lot going on. Whether it is leaping from ballet practice to Tae Kwon Do testing or making ones way through traffic at a snails pace, it feels like my family does not have a lot of time to spend with each other. As a small tight-knit, Italian family spending time together and having fun is really important to us. For my family, taking the weekend off of work and escaping to the cabin is our way of being together to enjoy summer. Up North we are reunited with extended family as we all try to fit our way into the tiny cabin. All the festivities taking place in the Twin Cities this year has me thinking that at some point I should celebrate here!
Friends Up at the cabin I have friends that at this point probably belong under the ‘family’ category. Reuniting with friends is just as important as reuniting with family is on the Fourth of July. For my friends and I, soaking up the good weather on the lake is how we choose to spend the day. By far our favorite activity is watching fireworks at night!
Food Food on the Fourth of July is centered around classic, summer, outdoor meals. We have the same meal every year that never gets old. All the men in the family take full advantage of the holiday as an opportunity to grill. Brats, burgers, a meatlover’s delight! Corn on the cob, watermelon, coleslaw, and other summer classics complete the meal. If summer could be described in food, then this summer feast would be the best way to describe it. Check out Food Network’s list of patriotic themed meals here.
Fireworks The capstone of the day… there will never be a day when I am “too old” to watch fireworks. For a small town, the park near our cabin puts on a very impressive one-hour firework display. This event is so popular that not even the massive amounts of mosquitoes can detract from the display. Everyone shows up to the local park early to get the best spots by the lake. For some cool firework display hot spots in the twin cities check out the link here. Pack popcorn and mosquito repellent and you should be good to go. Just remember the fireworks are even more dazzling when you are not constantly glancing at your smart phone!
Categorized in: Community
