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    I've never had a better Fourth of July. The bar isn't exactly the highest. My previous Best Fourth was some time back when I enjoyed the evening with a lot of friends and ended up burning-off my eyebrows and a swath of my bangs. This Fourth far exceeded those experiences.

    We spent the 3rd lounging all day and really recharging our batteries. We discussed the possibility of a stay-cation and were pretty set on doing just that. At some point we had a shift of mindset and decided family obligations trumped our entropy driven motivation to wallow all weekend. Lindsey's Grandfather had a Shriner's picnic he had invited us to. We contacted the fam and let them know we would make our way over for the Fourth.

    Lindsey, Ethan and I made the trek to the beach to spend the festivities where her G-Pa and her family were. I had expected the roads to be choked with travelers, but to my great delight we found them mostly abandoned. I'm sure the absurdly high gas prices had some bit of play there. Of course, maybe it was just the luck of timing because the beach was swarming with folks. Beside the bad parking the swarms of people made it all the more enjoyable. It also helped that Ethan slept nearly the entire trip over. His Grandparents then watched him, which allowed Lindsey and I to go on a date.

    The weather was fantastic. We couldn't believe that we were actually a little nippy, and Lindsey even desired a jacket. Out on the beach the wind died down enough to allow us to enjoy the sun and cold water. We had a little drinky-drinky, played in the water, walked in the surf, and discovered a large boulder to lay against and enjoy the rhythm of the ocean. We purchased candy apples, fresh strawberries, and white peaches. After a fashion we asked around then went to a nice restaurant on a pier in Avila Beach. Everything equated to a fully indulgent time that will remain in fond memory.

    Aside: We noticed a very interesting phenomenon at the beach. In my estimation it would seem that salt water repels overweight kids. My evidence for this is anecdotal. I observed that a lot of skinny kids were playing in the ocean, slightly heftier kids were standing in the shallow surf, beef kids were up on the sand, and the super-sized kids were hanging back almost off the sand entirely. Of course, my wife thinking more logically than I decided that my hypothesis about salt water having the opposite charge of fat was completely off base. She insisted that I was actually just observing the level of activity. More active kids tended to engage in, well, activity.

    In the late afternoon we made the journey to Lindsey's Great Grandparent's home to meet-up with the rest of the fam. Upon arriving we were informed that the Great-G-Pa had played some guitar while the Ethanator danced in revelry. We spent the evening enjoying the company as four generations spent time together on our fine holiday. After dusk we watched the neighbors light-off some fireworks and then retired for the night to watch the end of Independence Day (corny, but whatever).

    The next day we decided to trek on down to Solvang for some Dutch oven made pastries. On the way we stopped at a miniature horse ranch and took in the sight of dozens of tiny horses roaming the pastures. I'd never seen horses that small, not even the ponies that kids ride for a couple of bucks. Solvang was a little warmer than we would have liked, but we had lunch at a nice cafe. At about that time Ethan's fuse burnt to the powder keg and he blew. We decided that would be a fantastic time to head back home with our winnings. Which, as it turned out, Ethan was grumpy because he was tired. He slept all the way back to Bako.

    On Sunday we spent the day painting and tricking-out out laundry room. It now has a coffee shop motif and canary yellow walls to brighten the room. It is like walking into a slice of France, or maybe Greenwich Village with a washer and dryer. The room looks fantastically better. The only drawback is my ongoing desire to have an espresso and bagette in there.

    To sum everything up: Wow, what a Fourth of July!

The horse ranch: http://qsminis.com/