the wonderful world of veena.: 26 of 52: ringing in the 4th.

05 July 2014

26 of 52: ringing in the 4th.

I didn't really have any big plans for the 4th of July this year. Last weekend my mother and I had briefly discussed going to the Redbirds game, since they always have fireworks for the 4th, but we never really made a decision either way, and before either of us realized it, it was already Thursday evening and she had a lot of work.

Most of my friends were out of town, but luckily Christina was here, prepping for her move out of her apartment on Mud Island and into Katie Walsh's house in High Point. I wanted to watch the World Cup quarterfinals, and Christina wanted to see some fireworks, so we decided to head downtown and see where the afternoon and evening took us.

We started out in Bardog for a drink, some snacks, and the Brazil-Colombia match. It was pretty empty since it was mid-afternoon, but both of us forgot that they allow smoking inside, so we were both fine with leaving once the match finished.

The timing was perfect, as the match was over by 5pm, and the Redbirds were slated to get underway at 6.20pm. We headed up to AutoZone Park and managed to snag some tickets in the Field Boxes for $16 a piece. We took a wander, procured some strawberry daiquiris - complete with souvenir cups! - and people-watched for a bit before settling into our seats for the game.

[awesome ballpark in the heart of downtown]

The game itself was a little bit boring, and that is coming from someone who loves baseball games. The crowd was super quiet, and the announcer had zero enthusiasm; at one point I cheered and everyone in my section turned and looked at me like I was crazy. It was bizarre.

[the view from the bluff]

But then came the fireworks. And they were totally worth the slightly boring 9 innings. The Redbirds put on great fireworks every Friday night anyway, but they always do special shows for Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day, and last night was no exception. Because of the wind, we ended up covered in ash, but neither of us minded because the show was great.

[beautiful early evening weather for some baseball]

After that finished, around 9.15, we were walking back to the car when we realized that we could still catch the last firework show from the Mud Island River Park, set to begin at 9.30. Traffic was a nightmare anyway, so we walked down to the river and found a seat on the rocks just in time for the fireworks to begin. And wow. It was 25 straight minutes of awesome pyrotechnics, and we had a great vantage point for enjoying them.

[lots of people lined up for the fireworks action]

We figured traffic would still be crazy, so after the fireworks ended we went to Huey's for a drink and some fried mushrooms to pass the time, before finally leaving downtown around 10.40pm.

It was a fun day with a fun friend, and both managed to exceed our expectations for the day.

other highlights included: made prawn biryani by myself for dinner; overwhelmed by birthday wishes from all over the world; surpassed my $750 fundraising goal for St Jude [now aiming to raise $1,000 by December!]; lots of anticipation for my upcoming road trip;