Fowrhth

In case you missed it, the United States of America became an even older biddy than she was previously. 233 years have made this country fat and ugly. On Saturday, we decided to shoot fireworks in an attempt to whip up the energy to motivate America to get up, get dressed, and go look for a job.

Anyway I'll stop with that now. I went to Duluth for Independence Day. My friend Emily was in town, so she and roomie Kat joined me and Tara for a day at my parent's house. My dad cooked a wonderful smoked pork roast. Unfortunately, due to my newly discovered gluten allergy,** I am unable to eat barbecue sauce. So, ma decided we needed to run to the COOP (or as she says, "KWAP") to find some gluten free sauce. Half an hour later, we walked out with Peanut Butter Panda Puffs, Smorables, Cherry Cream Blue Sky, Frozen Gluten Free Flax Bread, a Lemon Angel Pie (imagine a lemon meringue pie with a meringue crust)... and no barbecue sauce. We got back to the house and drew aquatic animals on the driveway. Emily later drew a dragon. It's kind of her thing.

Duluth has amazing fun things to do on the fourth, including "Fourth Fest." This year, complete with a crappy traveling carnival. We ventured downtown and purchased copious amounts of candy and fried deliciousness (which I could not eat) and cat rubber ducks. Upon returning home, Destiny and Joe had arrived and it was time for food. I lit a candle for the year anniversary of my grandfather's death while we sat outside and watched Destiny play in a sled full of sand ("It's like a mobile sandbox" my mom exclaimed. "It's like sand from my trunk put into a sled you stole from me the year after I bought it" I corrected her. "Oh, you didn't need it anyway.")

Instead of watching the fireworks at the 'rents place, Em, Kat, Tara, Alyssa and I joined Alyssa's friends on the beach of Wisconsin Point. This is the stinky brother of Minnesota Point, more commonly known as Park Point in Duluth. You drive past a landfill on the way to the beach. Nothing can be more pleasant than that. Complete with a fire and a keg, we watched Duluth's apparent "SECOND MOST EXPENSIVE IN THE COUNTRY***" fireworks display. It wasn't very thrilling. The mortars shot above our heads by the fellow beach patrons were more exciting and better to watch.

We headed back to Minneapolis the following morning. No stay in Duluth is too short.

(**not yet tested by a medical professional)
(***as stated by my father, not verified at this point)