We started our Fourth of July off right- by dressing in our red, white, and blue!
Jamie and I took the girls down to Morningside Park because I had read online that there was going to be a Fourth of July parade, but I got the directions wrong and we ended up missing it. So frustrating, but the girls had fun playing in the park and getting way too close to the water in the duck pond.
In our little tour of trying to find the parade we stumbled upon the Columbia University campus. It was so beautiful and unexpected, because I didn't know that a college campus (like I'm used to seeing) existed in NYC. I just assumed that if you went to college in NYC you didn't get the experience of actually living on a campus.
But this university was so pretty and sprawling and looked just like a typical college campus (right smack dab in the middle of this busy city).
Dorms, college library, fountain, different halls for classes, etc. It was really neat to see. I'm glad we got lost so we could see this (ok, not really glad that we got lost, but gotta look on the bright side!).
Back in the subway station headed home the girls didn't seem to disappointed that we missed the parade.
Most of the time they are their own traveling entertainment anyways.
Jamie with his usual "please don't make me pose for a picture" smile.
When we got back to our apartment the fire hydrant out front was open for kids to play in. So we stopped and let the girls cool off.
Annie was trying so hard to get a drink from the spraying water!
The city water in NYC is actually really clean. Jamie read somewhere about how our water is one of the top ranked tap waters in the country...?!
Then a guy came by who had the Statue of Liberty face shaved into his hair. So awesome!
That night Jason and Samanthe and Samuel came over to cook a big dinner and watch the fireworks from our apartment. I didn't get any photos of our tasty meal, but it was delicious and we were all stuffed with bbq, corn on the cob, baked beans, watermelon, and an amazing american flag trifle that Jason made!
I know you've heard us talk about how much we love the view from our windows, but it really is so stunning. We have the NYC skyline out one window and the George Washington bridge out the other window.
Macy's was doing the big firework's display from boats in the middle of the Hudson River (which is out our window), so we all crawled out onto the fire escape to watch the show.
I was a littler nervous about having the girls out there, but we all held on to them tight and they sat perfectly still so it was ok.
It was neat to watch the fireworks on the river and also have the Macy's TV special on inside- so we could hear all the music they had timed to the fireworks while we watched them outside.
My camera has a wide angle lens to it's hard to really capture the fireworks, but it was a great display!
The girls kept "oohing and aahing" with each new wave of fireworks. They loved it!
It was a fun 4th of July!
