30 June, 1-2-3-4-5 July

We have been verrrrrry busy so no posts in a while. After all, this was the 4th of July weekend. Granddad did take a bunch of pictures and he will add them below. Amy and Mona drove in from Atlanta so Amy could play music (and get paid for it) over the weekend. They got here late Thursday so Liv did not see them until the morning when she woke them at 6:30. Peter left early that day to help get the Spirit of Independence ready for the Parade of Sail.




The parade had at least 150 boats and was really pretty with the Brazilian and Uraguyan national training tall ships in the parade.







At the end of the parade all the ships/boats moved over to Norfolk for Harborfest. Harborfest is a really big celebration in Norfolk. This year it was for three days and had everything from food vendors to boat competition (races and demonstrations on the river).


They had four stages with music at each, children's events, and boats open for tours. The Spirit was open for tours too.


Liv came over to Norfolk with Sara when Amy played on one of the stages...the one right by the Spirit. After the performance Liv came to spend the night on the Spirit.



The tugboat competition was really cool. The boats showed how they could push really hard, how fast they could turn, and do all kinds of neat stuff.


She got to stay up past normal bedtime because the fireworks were at 10 and everyone wanted to see the fireworks. They were AWESOME, from two barges in the river. Boy, were the fireworks noisy. Right after the fireworks we all went to bed. Liv said that somebody snored but I'm sure that was only a little bit true.


The Spirit was open for tours on Sunday so Liv helped show off the boat and she also took a few breaks to listen to the bagpipes, see the puppet show, and do some children stuff with the pirates.

Then it rained so everyone on the Spirit went below and Liv read Junie B. Jones for all the adults. Around 5 we moved the Spirit back to Portsmouth, came home, had a huge dinner with Amy, Mona, Kay Carl, Sara and Peter. As soon as dinner was over it was time for bed and Liv fell fast asleep. Quiet time on Sunday was not very quiet due to the bagpipes so Liv was really ready to go to bed early that night.

LIV WRITES
I went to the puppet show. I made a pirate bandana. Today is the very first day of swimming lessons. we saw girls and a man try to break bottles on the front of a boat but they dropped them in the river. it was funny. I miss and love you a lot lot lot.