Tuesday 6 July 2010

Celebrating the 4th of July

After a long days riding in temperatures that were bordering on uncomfortably hot, Paul and I arrived back at David and Mellissa’s on the evening of the 3rd July to find no-one in the house, so we walked through their garden and down the steps to the lake that is at the back of their property to find everyone on boats, on the pontoon, or in the water swimming.
















































We quickly realised they were having too much fun keeping cool, so we unpacked our trunks and got into the lake a s quickly as we could, followed by a refreshing beer, or 3....



























We had a terrific supper that Mellissa made and David BBQ’d of fish tortillas with salsa, salad, beer, coleslaw and more beer. David and Mellissa were great hosts and we sat in the garden into the evening with them, Pete and Beth (M’s cousin) and a few local friends....






















I awoke early on the morning of the 4th July and I was a man on a mission. Ever since the bike-in-the-mud incident about a week ago, I wasn’t happy about the remaining mud in the nooks and crannies of my bike, so it had to go.....




















Pretty soon it was back to its usual gleaming condition!

Four of us then went off to Boston to buy lobsters for the afternoon’s party that was to be help at Pete and Beth’s house. We bought a dozen and as we left the shop I spotted a monster 20lb lobster that was tricky to even lift....



























All that shopping was thirsty work, so we stopped for a quick one. This is Pete, David and myself....






















The 4th July party was great fun. We played tennis, croquet (well done Paul for winning), we swam, put up a Union Jack flag to accompany the USA flags flying everywhere and generally had a terrific time. Paul had bought from the UK two bottles of Pimm’s Number 1 – a gin based fruity summer drink, that seemed to go down very well. We experienced our first beer-ball and cooked the lobsters in a huge pot along with steamers (clams), potatoes, lobsters and seaweed....








































The evening was finished off with a glass or two of champagne watching the Boston POPS orchestra playing their traditional 4th July concert, with fireworks, on the TV.... Here are David and Mellissa watching.....




















Then back to D & M’s house and we watched the World Hot Dog Eating Championship – the winner ate 54 hot dogs and buns in 10 mins!!

Both Paul and I thought it was a pretty good way for two English guys to help celebrate the 4th July.

Many thanks to D&M for being great hosts and letting Paul and me stay with them.

4 comments:

Eve said...

Two really good ways to celebrate the 4th Gary...drinking of beer and washing of bikes!!! hahaha! Glad you had a great time and again with the lobster??? GOOD FOR YOU!!!!!
Ride on!!

Tim France said...

Wow, that sounds like a pretty amazing day - the lobsters and the cool water sound really inviting. And not one mention that 4th July celebrates declaration of independence from Great Britain - how convivial indeed!

Axel said...

Great celebration report. with all the icecream, beer, lobster, champagne, Pimms and lobster again you must be gaining weight... :)
Nice haircut by the way

Gary France said...

Eve – The bike cleaning made me feel better the next day, which the beer didn’t. You know, I could get quite used to lobster a couple of times a week!

Tim – We did take some Union Jack flags which we hung up and we said that we were there to reclaim the country because they have had it for long enough! Everyone took it in very good spirits. The cool water was soooo refreshing!

Axel – you are correct. You have to watch it over here or the pounds will pile on. The haircut was a necessity as my head was getting way too hot in this amazing weather we are having here.