Happy Fourth of July!!!

It's past midnight again! The fireworks didn't start tonight until 11:35pm, so we were up late!

Today was a lot of fun! We started the day off with our own little private pancake breakfast, rather than head downtown in the rain for the one that the city was hosting.

We left for the parade and got good seats that gave us a good view of the staging area and the end of the parade route. The weather was nice enough to stop the rain for the parade time. It was a lot of fun! We saw all kinds of great floats and the patriotic spirit in the crowd and with the participants was great! There were a few highlights for each of us! Me, I am always a sucker for bagpipes. Amanda went crazy when she saw the Star Wars contingent round the corner. Rebecca loves polar bears and when the Alaska Zoo float went by, the polar bear mascot passed by everyone else and walked up to Rebecca and gave her a hug. We all thought it was great, and Rebecca was so thrilled!

After the last parade float had gone by, they were headed toward the Parkstrip, where the food was, so we followed and unofficially became a part of the parade. We had hot dogs, gyros and a funnel cake. Then it started to rain.

We left there and I took the girls to the Alaska Railroad Station. While we were there, Kevin called. We talked for a little bit, and then we got on the subject of benchmarks, and Kevin went looking on line for where we were on an online map. Not only were there three Tidal Benchmarks on the Railroad Building, but there was also a Geocache nearby. I didn't have the GPS, so Kevin read me the cache page, and I was able to locate it. Neat! (Read our Geocache Log here.)

One of the reference point benchmarks was on the front of the building, but the other two were on the track side of the depot (where you are not allowed to go if you are not a passenger), so we couldn't get to them. I asked the lady behind the ticket counter if we could go out there to take pictures, and she was given permission by Security to "escort" us out there. Ironically, even with Kevin giving me the description of where it was in my earpiece, the Alaska Railroad lady was the one to find it first. Neat. We took a few photos and then left the station.

We drove up through town, and as I was turning onto C Street, my phone rang and it was Kevin. He asked it we were still at the train depot. I said no and told him I was at 9th and C. "Stop right there!" Kevin yelled. "That's exactly where I need you to be!" Miraculously there were no other cars on the road at that moment, so I was able to turn over two lanes of road into a parking lot. Kevin told us that there was THE original Anchorage benchmark across the street, and it was also a virtual cache. We went over and found it and took some pictures that then we headed home.

As we drove, I decided that I was going to give a cache I had tried twice before another shot. I had figured out what the cache was on the first try, but I had had no luck getting it out. This time it was backwards, so I knew I was looking for the right thing and grabbed it. Don't twist. . .PULL! Anyway, I called Kevin from the car and told him I had found another cache. He was surprised, but thought it was great!

Every Fourth of July, we spend time together as a family geocaching. So, it was really wonderful that we got to geocache together, even if we were over 2000 miles apart.

When we got home we had baby back ribs (I have a great recipie for when I get home) for dinner and s'mores for desert. (Katrina - "Mama, my sticky!") We did some sparklers on the back porch and then we headed out to see the fireworks. The fireworks show began at 11:35pm and even when it ended the sun had not gone down. It was a fun day!

See all the pics here.