4th of July on the Charles!

 We had an amazing 4th of July this year.  Brad and Camille came out and we had a TON of fun!

 

 We started out the day with a hike at Break Heart State Park.  It was a nice stroll on paved trails so it was easy and just a nice way to get out and enjoy nature for a few minutes.

Several months ago I had heard from my neighbor that you can take kayaks out on the Charles River for the show and fireworks.  That got my wheels turning and I spent the next several months thinking and planning ways to make this happen.  We made it happen after two "not so small" miracles. The first of which helped us find parking in Cambridge and the second - convinced my dad to come join us and 750,000 of his closest friends.  Really it was only 500,000 people and my dad was happy to inform the Swensons that they were among the top 100,000 on the list.  We walked a few blocks with our kayaks down to the Cambridge Side Galleria, a mall that has an inlet to the Charles River.  We definitely got some looks from people as we were walking with our kayaks down the street.  

 We "put in" with out incident and paddled up the Charles River.

The view was amazing. It was a little hard paddling up river, but we didn't mind that much.  It was just fun. 

 Getting the party started right! 

Shortly after the program started then we started watching these thunder storms roll closer and closer to us. We could see the lightning off in the distance and we hoped that it would pass by us.   We had been hearing about them on the news earlier, so we were aware that we may get rained on.  The police came in on the loud speaker and told everyone that they were going to stop the program because of the "impending doom" that was heading our way.  They evacuated thousands of people and told them to head towards the closest bridges and find shelter.  They opened up a few sites as emergency evacuation sites, but we were sitting there in kayaks! What are we supposed to do?  A police boat went by and let us know that kayaks and canoes could head to the shore.  So we did.  We paddled close, but what is that supposed to do for us?  So we hung out there for a while and debated if we should paddle back down the river to this -->  bridge, the longfellow
bridge.  We decided to wait until the rain started to head to the bridge. Which that ended up being just fine.  We were close to shore when they started letting people back to finish up the rest of the program.  So we were really close to the Esplanade or "Hatch Shell."   We could hear the music really clearly, as well as see all the crowed people on shore.  That made us more thankful for our mobility.  

Shortly after Dane took this video a police boat came by and the guy on the bow of the boat was going nuts! He started yelling at us that we needed to get back by the yellow buoy.  He was yelling, "I'm not going to keep chasing you down the shore line!"  I was thinking, goodness! Get a grip officer.  This is the first time we've seen you.  So I was watching him, and I think that gave him a reality check.  So to save face he said, "and you're supposed to have lights on that boat."  I said "sorry" and paddled out to the yellow buoy.  After that then I was "cracking" a glow stick and it exploded and some of the "juice" shot in my eye.  OWE! So I spent the next several minutes pouring Camille's water bottle into my eye. The bad news is that there have been no long lasting effects of the glowing liquid in my eye.  I don't have night vision or anything. 
The wind started to pick up and just as the fire works started there was an absolute down pour!!! We were SOAKED.  I had an umbrella in my bag, so I pulled it out, but then I was getting blown away so I was trying to hold the umbrella with my chin, and use my two hands to paddle so I didn't end up on the other side of the river.  That wasn't working out great and everyone else was getting soaked, and I was going to lose my umbrella if I kept trying to hold it with my chin with the strong wind; so I just gave up and put the umbrella away.  There was maybe two square inches on each of us that were try... or "less damp."
At this point the fire works are in full swing and this lady in a large boat starts screaming at us, "GET ON THE BOAT! GET ON THE BOAT!! GET OVER HERE NOW!"  I was happy where I was so I kept paddling around having this lady scream at me like I was 5.  Dane didn't want to get on her boat either so he kept paddling around.  Camille wanted to get on their boat, so she did.  Which that was a great idea because she got out of the rain for most of the fire work show.  However... We did have a slight hang up because this was the start of a "series of unfortunate events." There is Brad, happily getting rained on in the middle of the Charles River.  His wife has just boarded a boat of some weird "Mainers" and this lady is continuing to scream at him to get on the boat.  What is a man to do.  He paddles up the boat with the intention of boarding as well.  He sticks out his paddle so he can climb out, and the lady takes it away.  Now don't forget that it is still raining hard, and the wind is blowing.  Brad immediately starts to drift away from the boat.  He reaches out for a hand (or a paddle) and... SPLASH! Brad is swimming in the Charles River with a half submarined kayak.  Now this is interesting... the man of the boat then yells at Brad to "leave the boat." It's like Jaws himself was swimming up behind Brad and he had to ditch all worldly possessions and save his life by climbing on their boat.  Brad was thinking, "are you kidding me!? This isn't even my boat! I'm not leaving it." So Brad swims the kayak over to the boat, they pull it up onto their swim step, I get away from the lady tying up my kayak, (thank goodness she couldn't tie a good knot) and we enjoy the rest of the fireworks.

It was great!  I feel like you get two for the price on one since you see the fireworks in the sky, but also see them reflected off the surface of the water.  They always surprise us with something new.  You can see some star shaped fireworks in this clip... and those were new to us.  We all enjoy ourselves for the rest of the show, (no matter which boat we are on) and once the show is over we head out.

...After we drain the water out of Brad's kayak.  :) Getting back down the Charles felt a little like playing frogger.  I'm glad we all made it across the river and back down to the galleria.  It was such a fun night.  My mom is already planning on making that a tradition and Brad was figuring out that next year the 4th would fall on a Thursday and the year after that would be on a Friday.  (We're just saying Brad and Camille... One trip a year... What are you going to do?)