Other than a couple of New Year's Eves, I've never spent a major holiday in Chicago. My (and Kevin's) family in Indiana is close enough that we can always make it home for the big ones.
This year, though, Fourth of July fell in the middle of the week, plus we're leaving for Canada (for a conference I'm presenting at) on Friday. So this year I did something I've never, ever done in my life - spent the Fourth away from La Porte.
We had a pretty awesome day. My sisters and I planned to spend the holiday at Montrose Beach, a wide stretch of sand up near Amy's apartment.
Kevin and I arrived at nine to stake out a good spot. It was really lucky we got there when we did! This was the last shade available anywhere near the beach.
While we waited for my sisters to arrive, we just lazed around, drinking iced coffee and reading. It was one of the hottest days of the year, so it was a bit uncomfortable, but overall a really nice morning.
One thing I personally loved was that, mostly because of the neighborhood we were in, we were surrounded by people speaking Spanish. Below are some photos of a guy selling balloons (notice the grills, hammock, and tents in the photo...the people at this particular park were SERIOUS about their "urban day camping."), a mango "nieve" I bought from an ice cream cart, and, best of all, a Mariachi band we paid to play us a couple of songs.
Kelly, Amy & Roger, Roger's brother Ryan, a bunch of Kelly's work friends, Kevin, and I all hung around in the shade, jumping into a very, let's say, refreshing Lake Michigan when we needed to cool off. We grilled out, grabbed some drinks, worried when they cleared the water to search for a little boy (he was okay...wandered down the beach, apparently), talked, and sweated until about 5 when we finally gave it up to go home, shower, nap and head out to the fireworks.
It was a hot one, and a much different Independence Day than I'm used to, but I was glad to spend it in this city I love so much with some of my favorite people!
