July 4

Lisa and I had a spectacularly good Fourth of July weekend this year. Having closed escrow on the sale of our nightmare rental house, seen the end of June gloom weather, and being fresh off a great trip to San Diego with my family and the in-laws, we were truly ready for fun and relaxation.

The Fourth began the same way it has every year since Lisa and I moved to our little Mayberry-like neighborhood in Los Angeles: with the annual Westchester Fourth of July parade. About 90 minutes or so of local merchants, school bands, civic groups, Harley clubs, equestrian troupes, and a police helicopter flyover, slowing meandering up Loyola Boulevard from Westchester Park to the south entrance to Loyola Marymount University. There is always a great turnout, with families staking out their spots on the sidewalks and curbs, holding little flags and waiting for the candy and goodies to be thrown at them by the paraders.

This year, as last year, I was a parade participant with Max, as part of our YMCA Indian Guides "tribe." Max really has a great time with this, and this year his Razor was festooned with all sorts of purloined red, white, and blue ribbons hanging from the handlebars. Now that I'll be the tribe's chief for 2009-2010, I have a big job, and I need to step up the participation. I even handed out recruitment flyers to parents with small kids as I walked up the street.

After that, we took the kids to a block party that some friends were having. Great barbecue, a few bouncers, a basketball hoop (which Max dominated the entire time we were there), and free flowing keg beer (Lite, but who cares?). Unfortunately, we only had about 90 minutes to spend there since we wanted a great spot for fireworks watching at Chace Park in Marina del Rey.

This was our second year doing the fireworks at the Marina with both kids. We got there around 6 pm for a 9 pm show, and found a shady place near the water's edge, about a quarter mile or so from the launch site. This year I was struck by the fact that we were surrounded by so many non-English speakers. Mostly Spanish, but I also heard Farsi, Hebrew, and Tagalog. A woman from the Persian family behind us wished me a Happy Fourth of July in broken English. Given the recent developments in Iran, and our first year with a mixed-race president, I enjoyed the fireworks show and our little celebration of freedom that much more. That, plus the fact that Elijah sat in my lap for some of it and gave me a running color commentary (that is to say, he told me all the colors he saw in each explosion)!

Sunday was more relaxed, as the only event we were going to was barbecue night up at the in-laws. We meandered up there just in time to enjoy a luxurious swim in their pool (no goggles required in their salt-based water). I was all prepared to be cook, but Lisa's parents told us that we'd be cooking indoors this year. For the last month or so, there was a hummingbird's nest in the tree right outside their kitchen door, and recently two chicks had hatched. On July 4, one of the chicks had fallen out of the tiny nest, and was resting on the mossy ground near the barbecue. The mother hummingbird was tending to the chick in the nest as well as the one of the ground. There was no way to prepare food out there without getting in the way of nature, so.... We sat and watched the mother flit from the nest to the ground feeding each chick. Hopefully predators will not get the chick and it survives.

Eli wondered how the chicks get fed. It was fun to tell him the gross story of how the mother regurgitates (I said "throws up") into the chicks' mouths. He couldn't wait to tell Max.

Kids fell asleep in the car driving home and let us sleep till almost 6 am! Couldn't have asked for a better end to the weekend.