4th of July « Cross Strings

If you asked me to describe 4^th of July, 2008 in one word, I would say: “dazzling.” First, my parents and I took a trip to meet my grandparents at an enormous garden. We ate lunch there, and the food was amazing—even though my tortilla wrap was tinted green! It was a Greek wrap with artichokes, Greek olives, cucumbers, spinach, some sort of salad dressing that tasted very good, and feta cheese. I brought my new digital camera with me, which is a Panasonic Lumix with 10x zoom! I was very excited to take pictures of the flowers, trolley, people, dragonflies, the lake, the walls, the fountain, and yes, even the ground! Here are some of the results of our excursion. Enjoy!

Much of the African art at PG was weird...but these are pretty cute!

Much of the art there was weird…but these are pretty cute!

Ready for takeoff!

After we left the garden, we went home (first, stopping at Fireworks City to buy sparklers) and I made barbecued chicken drumsticks for the first time. It was quite an experience ripping the skin off the chicken first! As soon as the chicken was done cooking in the oven, and the splendid, mouthwatering aroma of dinner filled the house with its pungency, it was 9:05—the time we had to leave in order to make it in time to see the fireworks! Sighing, we put the dinner away, grabbed some chips, (I grabbed my camera, even though the battery was practically dead from all the pictures I took that day), and headed over to our favorite place to watch the event. It took forever to find a good place to park (the show was going to start in 2 minutes), so instead we parked a ways off, and walked to a good viewing place. It was phenomenal! It said in the paper last year that this place spends the most money on their display! At the grand finale, the fireworks came so huge and fast, it literally sounded like a machine gun, which kept going and going for about 4 minutes! Fireworks are, in my opinion, some of the most wonderful displays of God’s power and glory. It was awesome to ponder that God’s glory is far more beautiful and magnificent than those enormous, vibrant fireworks! Indeed, it was “dazzling;” but God is even more dazzling—infinitely more so! Someday, we as believers will be able to comprehend how this is even possible!