Up In Smoke!

Left early Friday to spend a few days at Ocean Shores.
Our daughter Katie drove the whole way, a two and a half hour drive. She drove really well, and obeyed the sped limit. Funny thing about that, I mentioned to my wife that I think we would have arrived a mere ten minutes earlier had I driven, disobeying the speed limit. Perhaps even later had I been pulled over by officer friendly!
Our friends the McDowells have a wonderful 2nd home on the canal. The canal is a fresh water, man made canal that links much of Ocean shores residents together via the waterway.
I never knew it was there until a few years ago when the McDowells bought their place.
It is quite wonderful to have a slow flowing "river" running in your back yard.
Several types of fish inhabit the canal. Trout, Bass and perch, I think Crappy as well.
Recently the home owners association planted some big Carp in the canal to help keep the Mil foil from growing so rapidly.
In many ways life at the Ocean is laid back, and in some ways it is a working vacation.
The home was purchased as a fixer upper.
Dale and Jean have been busy making the place a nice get away. Rebuilding the decks, cutting away encroaching foliage, re plumbing some fixtures, installing new screen doors and windows.
There is always a project or two to work on while spending time there!
I never mind because it helps them out and makes me feel good to pitch in.
Besides, we are with good friends, away from work and home, and at the beach!
We ALWAYS have great food too. Almost every meal is top notch.
Salmon, Crab, and awesome potatoes.
Or, perhaps you would rather have a simple snack like artichoke dip made with left over crab, along whit some home made salmon spread from the left over Copper River Salmon?!
Maybe you would enjoy hamburgers on the Barbie, made with Elk meat!
Lots of snackin' in between meals too!
Like I said, everyone pitches in, breakfast consists of bacon and eggs, and pancakes one day, French toast another, of course a generous helping of fruits too!
Dishes must be done by hand, so we all take turns getting our hands wet.
Matt, Jessica's fiance pitched in with his carpentry skills, patching some holes in the walls with drywall, and sanding them smooth. He also spent some time re attaching a shield on the lawn mower.
They haven't set a date for their marriage yet, but should be sometime next year!
I wasn't as much help as I usually am because of a very sore knee.
Saturday arrived and it was a beautiful day, my days at the beach often run together.
I think this was just a nice, lazy day for me, of course it was the 4th of July, Independence day!
I haven't bought fireworks in several years. It is kind of odd to grow older and see the two sides of the fireworks coin...
When I was a boy, my folks really went all out on the 4th! We had a great time, BBQing and lighting off huge amounts of fireworks. I think this is what makes it such a special day for most folks. Family and friends breaking bread together and ending the day in anticipation of the great wonders of gun powder! HA!
When you are little, they look SO BIG!
And they are!
We take this tradition and share it with our own children, perpetuating the wonder and joy!
As I watched the fireworks show on the beaches of Ocean shores this year, I had to laugh... so many people are complaining about their lot in life, whining about their lack of money, the economy is killing them, many are afraid that they will lose their jobs, and yet I say millions of dollars literally lit on fire.
Why do we do this?
A release of some sort?
A big "F" you to the world of financial woes that keeps us down? Some defiant thing that we must do to tell the world we are o.k.???
Just some thoughts I harbored as I enjoyed watching everyone burning their hard earned cash in spectacular fashion!
But I regress, or perhaps I have grown somewhat cynical, or both! lol...
We enjoyed the show at the Ocean. We met up with Joey Leno and his wife Chris, and extended family and friends...
We couldn't stay long with them because our children had met up with some friends of their own and we wanted to spend some "fireworks" time with them.
I had brought most of my magic show with me... just in case.
Most of Dales family has seen my show several times, so unless there was some new people to share it with, I was going to skip it for this year.
While enjoying time with Joey Leno and his clan, I noticed that there were many young people and some not so young. His daughters were there, and one of them, Teresa, has a son, Trace who is 3 or 4. They also had several friends like I mentioned. Shelly, their other daughter has no children but dates a fellow who has some and his uncle was there and he has some as well, to make a long story short. I offered to do a show for them, "Tomorrow."
More on that later!