It's Always Better on Holiday VII pt. 7: Best Real 4th of July

Monday it was time to celebrate the real Fourth of July.  Grandma and I both wore our Fourth of July shirts.

Collin and I grabbed lunch at El Pollo Loco.  What a wonderful establishment.  I went crazy with their dollar menu.

You know what will make your Fourth extra special?  Strawberry Fanta.  Try it yourself next year.

And then we headed over to Rebekah's Yorba Linda house for Pool Time.

Preceded by living room time.

And me reacquainting myself with King Kong (that's the name of the massage chair) time.

In all the excitement of the day Collin had forgotten to pack his trunks, Rebekah kindly suggested he try out these shorts.

The suggestion was met with some ambivalence.

Cradled in the hand of Kong.

Okay!  Pool time!

One of my favorite pool games is called "Sitting on a ball and eating Oreos"

There is also the game called "Jumping into the pool while holding a ball"

Or "Giving birth to a ball"

Here I believe I am celebrating my swimming underwater there-and-back on one breath victory.



Or maybe that's what I'm doing here?  Well, clearly we see that you just put me in a pool and I start feeling awful full of myself.

Poolside backrubbings.

All pooled-out, I went inside and invented a new Oreo, the Golden Chocolate Oreo with a traditional Oreo inside.

We watched videos of young Rebekah

While young Rebekah watched Collin.



Rested, Casey and Dan reappeared and we headed out to celebrate Jane's birthday because Guess What?Jane's birthday is the 4th of July!

Wait.  First the cars refuel.  Then us.



Just talkin it up and hangin out at the Chevron.

Patience.

We went to the Caspian for a fine Persian meal.

My California trip had a lot more statue-encounters than I had expected (and there's even more coming up in a couple posts).

Dinner!  I bet if you go to Rebekah's blog she'll tell you what these foods are.

Rice.  Not grated cheese.



And just as expected/feared, there was a belly dancer.

Bellydancers: For the uninitiated (or underinitiated), certainly a source of nervous giggles and heightened awkwardness.



It took us a long time to believe Rebekah that you're supposed to stick dollar bills into a Bellydancer, but it's true, you are.

Okay, now that we've settled down a little.  Here's that side of the table.

And my side of the table.

And both sides of the table.



They brought Jane out a little dessert topped with a trick candle.  Here is a photo of the fascination so easily caused by trick candles.

With the sun down it's easier to see the Caspian's flames.

And when we left the restaurant what do we see but a community fireworks spectacular exploding into life in the near distance.

For those of us that were at Lake Arrowhead the night before it could only hold our attention for so long.  UNTIL . . .

We notice this red glow, which I at first hoped was the light from those down-on-the-ground kind of fireworks but when we saw flames begin to leap from red glow in the near but too far away distance it was clear that something had gone very wrong at the neighborhood fireworks show.

And then Casey and Dan drove back to San Francisco and Collin and I returned to the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys and Rebekah and Jane stayed put in Orange County.  I had a great time with this little band of amigos on Fake Fourth of July and Real Fourth of July, they already know that I did but I'm saying it again and I'll say it again and again if I have to:  I had a great time with this little band of amigos.