4th of July!

Happy 4th of July! One of my top two favorite holidays. I love gathering with friends and family and celebrating the birth of our country with food and fireworks. Nothing can be better. This year I had no family around, but PLENTY of friends and fun.

The festivities began on July 2nd with Ryan Simmons' (who is in my ward) first one man cabaret Star Spangled Spectacle! He filled a cabaret room in a gay bar with Mormons and did a hilarious show. There was a two drink minimum and I think the waitresses loved serving up ONLY juices and Diet Cokes. Here is a video snippet of one part when he was an indian:


Happy Birthday America.

Last Sunday Becca Shim and I decided to go on a 100-mile bike ride on the 4th. Unfortunately, I did not have time to purchase the bike until Thursday afternoon. The problem was they did not have it in stock so I had them order it for me. Here is a picture of my beautiful bike, soon to come:

I won't get it until next week, but after that, I am ready for everyone to invite me on bike rides. Please make that huge purchase worthwhile! Meanwhile, Jessica Allred let me borrow her bike and Friday morning Becca and I went across the George Washington Bridge upstate to the Bear Mountain Bridge, crossed the Hudson, and came down the other side. It was a gorgeous ride. The way up Bear Mountain felt like a rain forest and all the cute towns we saw on the ride down were called things like Sleepy Hollow and were so adorable. We ended up in the Bronx in time to watch fireworks. We intended to ride the 16 miles home and end up with 100 miles, and although my idea to buy out all the glow in the dark neclaces was a good one, we decided once it was dark, raining, and we didn't know where we were in the Bronx it would be best to take the Metro North home. 80 miles is respectable. It was a really fun ride. Did I train before I went? No. We made it all 80 miles, but it wasn't fast or too pretty. I will say that my padded knickers were worth every dollar. I couldn't believe when I was panting up the mountain when teams of cyclists would breeze past me as if they were going downhill instead of up. I have no idea how you get that good at cycling. Another high point was when Becca was changing her flat tire and a bird pooped on my hand. Thanks bird. We did have some delicious Indian food from the Bronx carnival. Some of everything for only $10. A great ending to a really great day. We only took pictures on the Bear Mountain Bridge and once we hit the Bronx. I wish I had a camera on the bridge of my glasses so I could have taken pictures the whole way of how pretty everything was. Where does someone get something like that? A spy store? Anyway, here are the pictures.