Birthday and July 4th

 

I have always thought it pretty fun to have a birthday during a holiday weekend and this year, we kicked off 4th of July weekend with a fun Friday night including champagne on a balcony overlooking Sarasota Bay, birthday balloons, dinner and a birthday dessert at a lovely Italian restaurant in downtown Sarasota.

With a couple neighbors (friends), we do a regular dinner club where we trade houses, plus go out on a loose rotation.  Since the various schedules happened to fall open on my birthday; lucky me.  I felt really loved the whole night and it is always a treat to try new places in downtown Sarasota.  It’s fun to get away from our beachy vibe, dress up a bit and wander the sidewalks of a beautiful, vibrant main street.  

Our tradition on the 4th of July is low key lately after many years of lake days with big groups.  We swam a bit, barbecued burgers and I made my traditional Mom ‘s Macaroni Salad.  We ended the night on the beach, where the gulf breeze felt great as we waited for sunset, dark and the beautiful fireworks.  What a great way to end a long birthday weekend with fireworks over the Gulf of Mexico.  After all the turmoil in bigger cities this past year, I was feeling especially patriotic and thankful  to see that small town America is holding on to what America means.