Boston Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular

As far as I can remember I have spent every single Fourth of July in Boston. This has always been fun because Boston goes big for the Fourth with the Pops and fireworks. Millions of people join in the celebration from all over the world because it is a lot of fun.

Except when I say in Boston, I really mean in the suburbs of Boston. Since my family is all from the Boston area, I've always spent the day at my grandparent's house, or maybe back and forth between the two sides of my family. We have cookouts, pools, playgrounds, children, and a lot of patriotism going on. The weekend before I usually go to my dad's parents house for a cookout and the celebration in his hometown. There are fireworks at night that can be seen from my grandparent's house.

Then on the actual Fourth I end the day at the house my mom grew up in. From there you can hear the fireworks in Boston, so we watch the Pops on tv, open the back door, and listen to the fireworks from a few miles away.

This year I mixed it up a bit.

The Saturday before I was still with my dad's side of the family. It happened to be the day after my birthday (see the previous post, 21st Birthday Shenanigans). But instead of going to Braintree we all went down to Plymouth where my cousin Jake was marrying his long time girlfriend, Ali. It was a really beautiful day for the wedding, they lucked out. Her dress was pretty and his army uniform was, well, as army uniforms are (he's being deployed to Afghanistan, they wanted to get married before he ships out).

Then we went back to Braintree for dinner. Since we had been gone all day my grandparent's weren't hosting. Instead we went to a family friend's house. We hung out, chatted for a few hours, then watched the fireworks from her porch. It was a perfect view over the neighborhood, really.

(please excuse the poor photo quality. I have a tendency of breaking cameras so I use my ipod as a camera)

Then on the actual Fourth we were doing our standard cookout thing. I had a couple of friends over (Ranee and Sultan). We were hanging around the pool. My little cousin was jumping off the side to me (the closest a kid his age really gets to the diving board since he can't swim on his own yet) when Ranee decides we need to actually go into Boston.

Now, we've always wanted to do this. But all of the crowds were just not something the family ever dared to brave on the actual day so we never have. But this year we decided we were going to do it. We went about making our plans, coordinating how we would get into Boston, how we would get back out, all of that.

We figured it all night, I packed an overnight bag, and we headed into Boston. It was still fairly early (only about 7:30), so we were going to hang out with some of Ranee's other friends. On our way to them we/I decided to take a little bit of a detour...to see the USS Constitution. In all my years of seeing it from the high way on our family trips to and from Massachusetts, I had never actually seen it up close, so I was excited.

On our way we got to admire the beauty of the city of Boston. I've traveled all over the world and still love this city. Just look at it:

Then we came across a Korean War statue. Naturally I had to take a picture:

And then we arrived at Old Ironsides! (my best attempt at an artistic image, sun in the back, American flag at the front):

Because the tall ships were in town the US Coast Guard ship was right next to the USS Constitution:

Yup. Still love this city <3

Sultan carrying an umbrella because of the sun...I'll be honest, I poked a bit of fun at him because of it...

As night fell, it started thundering and lighting, so much so that the Pops were cancelled before the end (as any of you who were at home know, the show was still televised...thanks to the prerecording the night before). And at this point I was really glad Sultan had the umbrella as it had started pouring rain while we searched for the perfect place to watch the fireworks. We wound up under the Tobin Bridge, nice and dry (again, please excuse the picture quality):

The cloud in front of the fireworks is actually smoke from all of the fireworks. It truly was a spectacular show! 

If you ever get the opportunity to come to Boston for the Fourth of July, take it immediately. So many people and so much going on, I doubt you could be disappointed.

Happy Independence Day America!

21st Birthday Shenanigans

I returned home on June 28th, perfect timing for my 21st birthday (the 29th). And in case you're wondering, yes I planned it that way. Coincidentally it was on a Friday which happened to mean that I got to see many of my close friends and family for the first time in months all in one day.

I didn't manage to take many pictures I was too excited to remember to pull out my camera/ipod most of the time. The one time I did pull it out I dropped it and cracked the screen. Not to worry, though. It still works just fine.

So first thing I slept in. It was a wonderful start to the day considering the day before I had sat on an airplane for about 20 hours. Around noon my friend Nicole picked me up and we met my sister (Meghan), Ranee (who's house I was at in Hong Kong), and Ranee's brother (Sultan), for lunch. We went to Wicked in Legacy Place, Dedham. I ordered my first drink and we all got caught up. Then my sister hands Nicole an envelope with instructions for the rest of the afternoon and heads off to work.

We then proceed to the next stop on the adventure: Make. If you ever went to Plaster Fun Time, Make is kind of like that. Except instead of just painting ceramic figures (which you can still do), you can also make jewelry, candles, soap, glass, paper,  and cake (want to learn more? Check out http://www.makemeaning.com/buzz). We decorated a cake (shout out to my KLI family on this one). Ranee (who by the way, also happens to be my birthday buddy...hers is just a few days before mine) gave me little input as to what to put on the cake. Her only request: a blue elephant. Well, none of the items to add were blue elephants, but we did get to use three colors of fondant, and there were some other safari animals. Nicole and I decided it should be a Lion King themed cake. Now, it should be noted that Nicole is REALLY good at cake decorating. She does it for her friends on the side anyways, as well as working at a bakery. Between her and me (a slight perfectionist) the cake was a carefully crafted beautiful creation. All of the employees were really impressed (granted, they probably usually have young kids make cakes so they don't get works of art like this).


Then it was onto stop number 3: bowling at Kings...a bowling ally that also has a bar. We played a few rounds, I got another drink (Nicole is still 20, perfect since she had to drive home after), and had some fun. Nicole is definitely better than I am at bowling, but I think we're even on this one (she won at bowling, I had a drink).


After bowling Nicole left. It was SO good to catch up with her after many months apart! Keep in mind that I hadn't seen her that much over the winter even though I was in Boston because she had class and I was busy with other things, so we had about a year to catch up on. Also, she JUST got back from Rwanda. Lots to catch up on.


Anyways, next stop was Gap for some birthday sfhopping. I got a couple new dresses, a couple new tops, and a pair of jeans. Nothing major, you know? And then we were off to see mom, auntie Julie, uncle Joe, and little Brady. This is when all of the excitement caused the ipod screen to break...still haven't gotten it fixed...Brady was extra excited. I was home after months away (he kept asking why I was so far away), and auntie (mom) and Meggie were there too. Very good to see them :)


After my birthday dinner family time was over and I was off to see the rest of my friends. Ranee and I drove to our friend Nikkii's apartment where we also met Parvati (best friend) and Allison. We donned our tiaras and made our way to the T and into Boston. We met the guys (Tyler, Mike, Raphael...) at Faneuil Hall and continued the celebration. Mary, Christy, and Annalisa also joined us later on.


The night pretty much consisted of much excitement over the fact that I was home and 21, and the tall ships were in town aka, fleet week, aka, many coast guard. Much to some of our delight (like when we got to borrow their hats:

(Picture courtesy of Mary Halpin, the other young lady in this picture)

Definitely the best birthday/welcome home on record. It was definitely the mix of two events and getting to see everyone all in one day.

So thank you to everyone who made the day so special! I missed our shenanigans ^.^

<3