Happy Belated Birthday to...

my sister Kathleen (who is back to Kathy these days) and her husband, Bernard (and you need to roll those r's to say is name correctly because he is French) and, oh yes, our country -- the good ole U.S. of A. I hope everyone had a wonderful Independence Day. We did. Church was terrific -- my friend Robin sang a gorgeous medley of patriotic songs, really belted it out, it rocked. Then the message, A Declaration of Freedom, was equally good.

After church we went to the Riverside Inn in Cambridge Springs. The new owners were throwing a big party all day long. It started with a pig roast barbeque at 11:00am - 7pm. The food tent was surrounded by smaller tents for civil war re-enactors, a quill and bamboo pen making workshop with "Ben Franklin," maple syrup and candy making, organic soaps, vintage games, face painting, history displays including "The Mineral Water Boom," which put Cambridge Springs on the map. It was tons of fun for tons of people. There were pie and hot dog eating contests, musical presentations until dusk and then for a grand finale to a grand day -- fireworks!

We stayed for lunch then went home to cool off in our own pool. (Although the Riverside opened their pool to the community, free swimming all day...actually, everything was free except the picnic food, which was extremely reasonable.)

We returned for the evening festivities.

What a fabulous gift to the community this party was. It's so fun to be part of a small town. Everywhere I looked I saw familiar faces. People out and about, greeting people they know and making introductions to those they don't. Many, many thanks to Brenda Evans and Ken Falkenhagen the husband/wife proprietors of the beautiful, historic, 125-year-old Riverside Inn for showing us all a good holiday.