Freedom!

The Fourth of July kind of snuck up on me. I have had guests quite a bit recently, and have so much work travel coming up that I really didn't plan anything. And frankly, I live in a place that is actually a vacation spot so...I decided to take advantage of what Huntington Beach had to offer. My friend Tom was just back from Rio and so he came over in the morning to go to the parade. I didn't take a single photo but the highlights were a skateboarding dog and a monk playing the electric guitar. If those don't sound like highlights to you, you won't really like the rest of this entry either. We came home, watched some World Cup soccer and then got Greek takeout. Nothing celebrates American Independence like the choice to spend the day thinking about Europe right? At that point we were ready to see what HB was up to. So I made Tom ride the tandem, I took the red Schwinn and we headed downtown.

We headed off towards the beach and came upon some neighbors who had set up a slip and slide ramp into a baby pool in their front yard. This guy was giving the play by play
of this

I am not exaggerating when I say that EVERYONE in HB yesterday was on a bike. It felt just summers in elementary school when a bicycle meant freedom to roam the neighborhood looking for adventures. Bikes were everywhere and cars just had to get over it.



sometimes bikes even got pulled over

We got to main street and it was blocked off to make room for all manner of fun

like this 50's soul band

I was completely enchanted with this couple. This was a fairly sturdy woman but she was moving like she knew was the sexiest thing on the beach. It was so awesome to see so much confidence and to feel how much fun they were having. I couldn't take my eyes off them.


There were so many people you almost can't see the ocean back there. Except that you can because it's huge and beautiful and the perfect background to the party
Don't worry though, the police were there to make sure we all played safelySo we rode to the edge of Huntington Beach and I said, "gee, we are so close to Newport that now I feel like a frozen banana." And Tom shrugged and said, "uh, we could probably ride there." So off we went across the bridge to Newport Beach

As it turns out, HB appears to be the family fun center while Newport has a slightly more "girls gone wild" feel.


And I thought I saw Andy Kane there

The people watching was pretty awesome but I was also all about peeking into the houses
this happens to be my new dream home. The entire front wall of the house opens right out onto the beach. THE ENTIRE FRONT OF THE HOUSE. Seriously, my heart skipped a beat. Imagine the summers you could have here.
We figured that since we were already in Newport, Balboa Island wasn't much further so we kept going

The ferry was had a long line. A long line that went in front of Cold Stone. So we parked the bikes and gave in to temptation and impatience.

I wasn't great about putting on sunscreen yesterday-my skin is the same color as my hair now.

And then we really did ride off into the sunset.