“‘anza wa law Tarat.”
Loosely translated: Still a goat, even if she flies!

They tried, they really tried. But no matter how hard they worked, the Embassy just could not pull off a 4th like I am used to. Even those years when I had to work and just joined my mom on Riverside Drive for the fireworks, it was more “magical” than it was this year, stuck at the Embassy, trying desperately to enjoy the dunk tank and chewy beef hotdogs in kaiser rolls.

But again, they really tried. The kids seemed to have a blast, running from the water balloon toss to the pool to the dunk tank to the shawerma line. But for the adults, there wasn’t much to do but grab a beer at the Marine House and watch the kids running around. Oh, and gossiping. Standing around is always condusive to gossiping.

I exaggerate a bit though. It really was not such a bad time. Even considering that Bubba got called into work by a guy who just happened to stop by the office on his way to taking his kid to the big inflatable slide and saw that the server needed fixing. Nice guy, ended up getting Bubba 5 hours of overtime and the tail end of a fantastic dinner party.

After the community party at the Embassy, we made our way to Dan and Duffy’s for some good food and good company. We were hoping with their wraparound balcony that we would at least catch 1 or 2 fireworks displays (from the weddings of course), but alas.

One of my favorite memories as a kid was getting into my footie-pajamas around 8:30 and looking out the window for the fireworks. Mom would say, its not time until you hear the windows boom (this was due to the cannons from the symphony’s version of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture that they were playing across the river). Once the booms started, we would pack all in our red flyer wagon and ride down to the corner, where we would watch the fireworks over the James River, oohing and ahing the whole time. It was great, to be out in the buggy humidity of a Richmond summer, watching the fireworks over the river with the whole neighborhood.

While the whole day was fun for me (not for Bubba who had to work), it certainly was no river fireworks and footie pajamas.