I honestly have so many great memories from 4th of July festivities - I don't think I can even think of a bad one! There's just too many fun times to remember them all here, but they're certainly burned into the photo album of my mind, that's for sure. :) Experiencing Independence Day on the East Coast was also a real treat - DC and NYC put on some awesome shows and events to commemorate such a momentous occasion. I'd highly recommend visiting DC during the 4th of July, though there are tons of crowds and it's pretty darn hot. Just be warned!
Starting the weekend off, Matt and I hit up First Friday over on Sante Fe with Joe and Keri - the art district here hosts open galleries on the first Friday of each month and they'll usually offer wine and light snacks at most of them. Tons of people come out, especially on nice nights (like Friday), and if nothing else, it's excellent for people watching! You'll usually get a great cross section of Denverites, so it's a good time to just walk around and check out people and art. We also grabbed a drink at Interstate, a place Matt and I really like at 10th and Sante Fe. We ended the night grabbing dinner at The Walnut Room back on Broadway and headed over to Delite for some dessert and drinks (I had a fabulous strawberry mojito!). The DJ there always plays great music, so it's a nice place to hang out every now and then :)
Saturday night Matt and I rode our bikes down to Civic Center Park to catch the free CSO concert and fireworks show. It worked out perfectly because a) we didn't have to find parking, b) the weather was great, c) the symphony orchestra was great and played a bunch of patriotic tunes, and d) the fireworks ended up being much better than we expected! The Denver City & County Building has some pretty cool lighting throughout the year, and for the fireworks, it changed colors every few seconds which added to the fun :) Here are a few pics:
Sunday started out with great weather, so Matt and I walked around the neighborhood looking for a Mexican place to celebrate America's birthday with a breakfast burrito :) (Don't worry, we found a great one). We also worked around the house/yard and hit up Target (of course, Matt's least favorite thing to do). We headed to Joe and Keri's house as the rain started, and unfortunately, the rain just kept coming all night long... so no fireworks for us! Instead, we had an amazing dance party (after eating awesome ribs courtesy of Chef Joe) with Matt playing as DJ, and Rachel and I doing most of the dancing/singing. My favorite memory of the evening was Rachel singing/belting every word to "Defying Gravity" from Wicked. I mean, we really covered almost all genres of music that night - no one was left out! It was a great evening with our Denver friends, and we're so thankful for friends like them that we can just goof around with and have an awesome time.
Monday morning we were completely exhausted from the impromptu dance party but were excited to have friends over for a July 5th bbq. Yes, our outdoor space is very small, but hey, we like people and we like bbqs, so we're not letting that hold us back :) I spent much of the day grocery shopping and preparing the food, including the strawberry/blueberry trifle below that I made - and it ROCKED. If you're interested, I used this recipe and was very happy with it! (I did a double batch) We had a pretty good turnout, enough to definitely make our backyard a little squished, but it was fun to see everyone and enjoy the awesome weather. We're happy that we're starting to have more friends here to do that kind of stuff with! (Of course, we still miss the bbqs and wine parties from DC... we'll need to remedy that soon!)
Anyway, it was a fabulous weekend with lots of laughs and great memories!
Sounds fun Ali! I recall my first July 4th in DC, and was reminiscing with Mandi. I will say the fireworks and music were awesome, however I recall walking along Constitution at 1 a.m. and it was 100 degrees with the 100% humidity. Don't miss that!!!! Fun times in the Nation's Capitol city though! We should catch up sometime!
ReplyDelete