Fireworks, Marshmallows, Oh My!

Last night we had a blast! Our church had a BBQ at our community pool then we were heading out to see some fireworks. About 500 people paddled out by the OB pier to view the fireworks and then the rest of the beach and streets were filled with thousands of people. Jim viewed the fireworks from his surf board of course but we found out at the BBQ that people were actually selling their parking spots for $40-$100. So, Kahli and the kids and me set off in the van to view fireworks from wherever we could. I was just curious about the whole selling of parking spots so we drove downtown OB. They were right! People walked all the way from our house! But, in a moment of divine intervention, an elderly couple got in their car and left only a few blocks from the beach. We quickly took their space!!!! WE were so excited and couldn't believe it!

So we grabbed our chairs and headed for the beach with the masses. Almost every spot on the sand was taken but we squeezed in. We watched all the surfers making their way to the ocean in a long line.

The fireworks were great! They lasted about 35 minutes and the finale was incredible. Now for the really freaky, cool part! OB has a Marshmallow fight after the fireworks. We had heard about it but you really had to be there to believe it. I guess Southern Californians know they are never going to see snowfall and just decided to use the closest thing that represented snow.

The people started chanting, "Marshmallow Fight" right after the fireworks. There were marshmallows going every direction! Faith and Isaac didn't bring any but it didn't matter. Marshmallows were landing at their feet. It was more like an Easter Egg hunt for the kids. Isaac was doing the army crawl to avoid being hit but grabbing up all the marshmallows for his arsenal. We found marshmallows of every size. I even had a whole bag thrown at me! Kahli couldn't resist, she jumped right into the fight and I sat in my chair collecting the ones that came my way to hand off to the kids. We stayed until most of the crowd cleared out and then headed for our car.

It was a great way to celebrate our nation's independence. I'm pretty sure our founding fathers never dreamed marshmallows would be used to observe July 4th. I guess it is better having Marshmallows "bursting in air" than bombs any day, at least on American soil.