'Why fish fingers? Why not ... fish TOES!?!?' by Kara
Saturday, July 5, 2008 at 9:39 AM

Omake today. Also, I think Co-Writer might have forgotten 'til rather late that yesterday was Friday. *cough* Hey, I could be wrong. I did.

So I tend not to do anything on the 4th of July. I tend not to go many places, even. I live right in Williamsburg, so I know full well that anything I'd be interested in -- fireworks, parades, getting dinner -- will be overloaded with people from out of state wanting to spend the nation's birthday WHERE IT ALL HAPPENED. The most I planned to do yesterday was sneak down to Newport News to get food with the g'rents (we were all in the mood for burgers, what can I say). This went well, since coming out of Williamsburg in the early evening is tame, and I was coming back during a fairly dead time.

That evening, I heard noisy booming outside. It had been thundering earlier, but a look out the window and a look at the time pointed out that it was late enough for fireworks. I figured since I could hear them as loud as I did, there was a good chance I'd be able to see them. I'm less than a ten-minute drive to the far end of Colonial Williamsburg, ignoring any walking to get from where they stop allowing cars in.

It was drizzly out, but as I was coming down the steps, I could hear little kids in the parking lot going 'WwwwwwwaowDIDYOUSEETHATONEDADDY!?!?!?' so I figured my assumption was correct. There's a little island with a tree in the back-middle of the lot near the laundry rooms, and two families had discovered that that was the best spot, albeit not safe from the rain. Really, no one seemed to care.

I joined them out there, and we were joined later by a young couple from ... an eastern European country, I'm really not terribly good at accents from there. Suffice to say that they were recently in, and possibly temporarily -- a lot of internationals come in for the summer to work at Busch Gardens.

It's been a long time since I've stood outside for fireworks. I guess ever since I moved up here, I've spent late nights clear of the area just in case. But they were gorgeous. And I'm glad I put my book down and stepped outside to see them. Despite the treeline and the rain, they were amazing to watch.

And as I stood there, surrounded by fellow Americans and people who had come to this country for (even temporary) opportunity, sharing with them in admiring the stunning beauty of the coloured lights bursting over Williamsburg, I thought to myself ...

... God bless China.

If you have been, I like it very much.