Julie Andrews and the Fourth of July

I am back from my Fourth of July vacation to Santa Monica.  My oldest son, Seth lives there and I traveled from the mesa to LA with my other son, Tanner - what a fun time.  He drove the whole way and we just rocked tunes and talked the whole time.  Cliche to say priceless, but it's true.

We made a stop at the Hollywood Walk  of Fame - I was walking along thinking, this is funny that people want to see the name of their favorite star on a piece of the sidewalk;  I don't get it . . . and then I saw Julie Andrew's star and before I could stop myself, I was asking Seth to take my picture.  I know this ages me, but I love Julie Andrews.  Maybe in another life I can have her voice and grace.

The beach was cool and relaxing.  The people watching was great - I especially enjoyed skinny Batman and bizarro puppet lady.  We rented bikes, which I highly recommend.  I was surprised that we could park right near the beach for $7 and rent a bike for 2 hours for $12.  We biked Venice, through Santa Monica to Pacific Palisades and back, strawberry margarita at Danny's in Venice - come on, it was 70 degrees, clear skies - classic Cali.

We watched fireworks from a park in Marina Del Rey.  It was another beautiful spot but I'm going to give the fireworks award to Page over Del Rey.  They shoot them off on the golf course on the side of the mesa and they are fantastic and last 45 minutes.  The Marina Del Rey fireworks were about 20 minutes and it was difficult to view from many spots in the park due to the mature trees.  If you are near the Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce or Monument Valley around the 4th, I highly recommend you drive over to Page to see the view from the mesa - it's a great show.

Btw - as you may know, Flagstaff recently had a few very bad fires, so they canceled their fireworks - but honestly, they cancel them most years, so go north from the Grand Canyon and catch a great show in  Page.