one United Statian's independence day

I fell asleep July 3 with visions of hamburgers dancing in my head. Fireworks, raspberry crisp and swimming in the lake were sweet dreams that lasted until 10am. To begin the holiday, Claire, Melissa and I decided to go pick raspberries and blue berries in Redmond from the South 47 farm. I hesitated mentally, remembering the HOT, sweaty, challenge that u-pick was in my childhood, but figured it would probably be more fun by now. On our way to the farm on the 405 we ran across this man in his big, big pick-up truck. With his big, big flag flying out the back.














Make sure you click on this photo so you can see the thumbs up that he is giving me as I photograph. That's some American pride! The theme song to Team America, World Police starting running right through my head and I gave him the rocker pointer and pinky fingers as we passed.














At the farm, the berries were easy to pick and we had ourselves 8 lbs in no time. I honestly didn't eat a single berry before going to the scales and paying. Off to the ice cream shop to cool down where I enjoyed a most delicious black raspberry milkshake (with no seeds).














After that the girls dropped me off at the family house where I laid on this blanket under the apple tree for the better part of the day. I got up for a while to juggle with my badminton racket, just to prove that I can still have some energy to do something if I put my mind to it. We all played croquet later and Stephen and Mom each won one game. There was barbecued salmon, but I skipped that, really feeling like having some soup.












Last, my sister dropped me off in Eastlake a handy 15 minutes before show time and I walked down to meet some friends on the shore of Lake Union. Even somewhat cynical me was impressed by the fireworks and let out a few ooohs and wowwwwws. They had some new material this year and I really enjoyed the white fuzzy ones especially.

I only have one regret about our independence. This is that we are not a part of the Commonwealth, which means I can't get a temporary job in London or New Zealand or dozens of other countries to become a professional working tourist. Besides this, I am grateful for our rebellious and independent spirit and very nice country to live in.