Happy 4th of July, 2020

Happy 4th of July, 2020

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for July 5, 2020

For the first time in many years, we stayed home for the 4th of July.  Usually we go to Clear Lake, Iowa. This year with Covid-19 most of the celebrations were cancelled, so we thought it just made more sense to stay home.

We have taken our obsession with puzzles into overdrive and have started buying multiple versions to keep us entertained.  It's good family bonding time, although I do find myself getting a little carried away sometimes and have to drag myself away to go to sleep rather than find just one more piece....

We've been venturing out to new places for our hikes.  This week we went to the Bloomington Ferry Bridge to walk alongside the Minnesota River.

When we first moved to Savage, Minnesota back in the early nineties, there was a road that you could drive on to get to Bloomington from Savage.  However it was always washed out when the river got too high so you'd have to drive way out of your way to get to where you wanted to go.

Shortly after we moved in, they opened a brand new bridge on Highway 169 that replaced the need to go on the old road.  They shut it down and converted it into the paths Miss Sheri and I walked along.  Countless times over the past 25 years I've driven on this bridge and thought to myself, I want to go down there and see what it's like now.  Thank you quarantine boredom for giving me the opportunity to knock that one off the old bucket list.

We were amazed and delighted to see there were birds down on the paths also.  I was so worried we'd have to walk along those paths and not having anything interesting to see.

Another thing we've been doing more than usual this summer is getting out on the boat.  Avery has even taken an interest in driving it lately which allows me the opportunity to lay on my butt in the front.  Very nice!

On the 4th of July, we got out on the lake early and waited a couple of hours to get a good spot on the boat parade route.  Lucky we did because it got way more crowded than I was expecting.

  

The boys brought a couple of friends along for the ride.  It's always nicer to spend the holidays with friends!

The boat parade was fun and we heard from some others there were a lot more boats decorated this year than in the past.  I guess quarantine boredom is getting to other people as well.

There were loud cheers for the float for the 2020 Seniors.  Everyone feels so bad for them that their  final year in high school got so screwed up with the virus.  They seemed to be having a great time in the parade, though!

Our favorite float was the Tiger King entrant.  They had a couple of Joe Exotics on board, several scary looking tigers, and some fun "Don't be a Carole" shirts.  We like clever people.

Our holiday ended with a front row seat to an incredible fireworks display at Watzl's Beach.  Hopefully next year we will be back to normal and have all sorts of options to celebrate again.  Happy 4th of July, everyone!!