After celebrating July 4th with Americans (and some Aussies) it was immediately obvious that the national day of both the USA and Australia are spent in nearly identical fashion; BBQ-ing slabs of meet over fire, drinking beer and throwing a ball around a patch of grass. Instead of thick steaks and sausages from Coles as we do in Aus, baby back ribs and hot dogs were the order of the day in the US. The beer aspect was unchanged, but backyard cricket was replaced with backyard volleyball.
However, the US has something else to offer, fireworks! Yes, I know Australia has fireworks, but not the type that you can set off yourself (well, in Victoria at least). I am not talking some small pathetic looking firework that resembles a large sparkler, I mean a huge multicoloured explosion in the sky that challenges the yearly extravaganza at Queens Park in Melbourne. These things were impressive! I am not sure that giving the general public access to explosive devices in the middle of a hot summer is such a great idea, but hey, it’s fun! Oh, and there were also fireflies. Not sure if they were especially ordered in from Amazon for the 4th of July, but they were there and they were almost magical. I use the glowing stuff from fireflies all the time at work (to make viruses glow in the dark) but I had never seen the actual bug before. I was told by very reliable sources (young cousins) that the glow is observed after the flies fart, sounds plausible! So, after sunset, I perched myself on a hill overlooking a beautiful valley and watched home fireworks displays with a sprinkling of fireflies. Watching farts and explosions has never been so beautiful!
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