Penitent Tangent

Northern Idaho is nice place to be on the 4th. At least the kids and I had a good time. We were relegated to the Village, and I think we had no problem with that. We had the Gilder Rider, the cart, the lake, and the pool. We did not seem to need much more. From the reports I got, I am glad we were not out on the roads.
The weather was typical, in that it was never what you thought it was going to be. We had some wind, some clouds and some heat. Not a lot of rain, which is what we have come to expect. If you want to spend the day in your swim suit, in and out of the water, you can expect to be cold. We did our share of that. We spent some of our time at the beach on the lake. The kids were not intimidated by cold water, andbased on their reactions, the water was rather "warm". Rileigh was also excited about swimming in the pool. Ethan was there, but was not as excited.
Ethan and Rileigh are still afraid of guns -which can be a good thing. There was a "21 Musket" salute at the flag raising ceremony, and the kids were not impressed. Thankfully, it is a quiet protest which they have, and not one of those kicking and screaming types. This led us to believe that the evening would be an exercise in futility. So, our plans for the evening included going to bed. With the kids in bed, I could not help myself, so I took to walking the dog, thus sampling some of the local displays. The lake is a good place to sample all the fireworks. Sarah went with me on the walk, and we ended up sitting down and enjoying one of the shows put on by a neighbor. It seems there is a "war" between the various inhabitants on the lake shore. The south end put on an impressive and enduring display. The faction at the village had an impressive showing. There was an adequate display from the East side of the lake, and the other factions along the north side struggled to put forth a show. On return, Rileigh was at the window watching what fireworks made it over the tree line. After a while we had to close the window, so that the fireworks would not come inside. Next year may include an official fireworks show.