I sort of don’t want to share this because I don’t want to ruin the secret existence of this small and somewhat perfect town, but I seriously can’t help myself so here goes. There is this picturesque little town called Lambertville in NJ that reminds me of that little town Sausalito north of San Francisco in Marin county.
Sausalito is an artist’s community on the San Francisco Bay right at the end of the Golden Gate bridge and placed up on a hill with amazing views. Yes, the "artist's community" and ridiculous price tags on real estate mean it’s pretentious as shit, but you can’t deny that it is quaint and adorable at the same time. Check out their websites if you want a more accurate description. Compare, contrast. I think the websites sum them up fairly well. I mean, Sausalito has the balls to claim that it's "why they built the bridge."
Just to be crystal clear, we were in the far less fancy town in Jerzee, but because they are still trying to prove their worth, they have a free fireworks show every Friday night in the summer and the show is actually really, really good. I don't consider myself a fireworks connoisseur but Tim does and he claims their shows are on par with the NYC 4th of July show. Now that is quite a statement. What I think may contribute to his love of the show is the proximity. You are basically directly under the show if you are on the bridge here or anywhere along the shore.
I took this shot right before we pushed off in our kayak with the idea of watching the show from the water. It turned out to be a fantastic move but it was NOT easy getting started. BTW, a little backtracking. We have a brand new kayak that Tim was kind enough to purchase just an hour after my company folded and I lost my job. I'm still not sure if it was to rub it in my face like "hey you, Mrs. Unemployed, look at me and look at this boat that I don't need at all that I just bought because I have money to throw around while you're saving food stamps from now on" or maybe it was actually to make me feel better like "hey honey, don't worry, you may not have an income anymore but I do. In fact I'll just buy this little kayak here to prove how much I say f.u. to your former employer". Either way, I was bit thrown off but after my emotions settled a little, I was excited to give it a try.
When we first pushed off, it was like the 3 Stooges Go Kayaking. The third stooge, of course, was our doggy, Zelda. The spot where we launched was about an inch deep and rocky and moving really fast. Rather than try to simply guide the boat through this area, we sat in it, and tried to push off while seated and holding the dog in order to keep dry. Dry! Ha! Zelda kept jumping out while Tim was screaming at me "grab her! Grab her!" like it was easy or something. I mean, I was seated and holding an oar and we have a 70 pound German Shepherd who was frolicking in the water. SO EASY TO CATCH. After Tim's screams finally drove me to an insane place of rage, I finally grabbed the damn dog and pulled her into the kayak in front of me and got soaking wet in the process. FIne. Whatever. We were ready to go. Or so we thought...wrong! we were still in the shallowest water known to man which means we were just sitting there. I was like "honey, we have to get out and push it". He was like "I don't want to get my feet wet." Yes, he actually said that. I pushed down all of the snide comments that were just too easy and stood up and got in the water to show him how it's done instead. After he realized that I was soaking wet and that he was being a huge pussy, he also got out and we somehow managed to keep the dog in the boat while pushing off. It was not easy, but once we finally got the boat moving, we actually had an awesome time.
We paddled upstream for a while then found a good spot to drift back down so that we would be directly under the fireworks when they began. We corked a chilled bottle of pinotage (chilled red in summer=the perfect solution), poured it into our cups and proceeded to watch the best fireworks show I've ever seen. Even Zelda, after her initial fear, sat back and watched the show excitedly. It was so cute. We went back to the campsite and fell asleep under the stars with huge smiles plastered on our faces. Until the sick spring buck started whining and my poison ivy started itching but that's another story for another day.
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