Fourth of July

So we had a nice morning... Slept in till about 8, and then got up and drove down to see Chesapeake's Fourth of July Parade. It was nice, I mean nuthin big, about a hour long, but nice as far as Fourth of July parades are concerned. We came home, Makayla took a LATE nap (2-5pm) and then we got back out and went to Norfolk's Fourth of July festival.

Umm... Well here was the total buzz kill. So we get there at 6, thank you Norfolk traffic. Since the fireworks weren't scheduled to start till 9:30, we had four and a half hours to kill. We did a quick sweep to see what was goin on... Decided it was WAY too hot to sit around outside killin time so we went into the mall to find something to eat. We wait in this huge ass line, only to find out that Joe's Crab Shack had a hour long wait... So we walk over to Outback (which i'm not a big fan of to begin with) but hey, they only had a 25-30 minute wait so I could deal with it. So we walk around the mall... Wait... Wait... Wait... 30 minutes later we go to see why we haven't been called yet. They tell us that they're running a little behind and she doesn't want to give us any time cuz she doesn't want us to be mad at her... We wait... and wait... and wait... After an hour has passed we go back up to the desk... THAT is when we're told that it would be ANOTHER 30+ minutes! I was pissed... So then the woman starts to explain that after she put our name down on the list that they had "a lot" of phone reservations. Umm gee, had I have realized that before, I would have just called from right in front of Outback and told them I wanted a reservation in 5 minutes... Since phone reservations clearly took precedence over walk in reservations. Well there was no way I was waiting ANOTHER 30 mins with a screamin kid.

So we left and had to pay $6 for freakin Veggie Pitas and a few more bucks for a Corn Dog and some Kettle Corn to make Makayla happy. Ok so anyway, that was irritating enough. We sit around for 4+ hours trying to entertain the baby till the fireworks... Well this is where it gets irritating. I have no idea why the fireworks were scheduled to start at 9:30 when it gets dark at 8:45. Anywayz, a few thousand of us (literally) sat there waiting... and waiting... and waiting... 9:30 hits and FINALLY the Navy Band sings the National Anthem and then we sit there in silence for 5 minutes till someone just comes on the PA telling us to, "bear with us, the Fireworks will start momentarily" ...So we sit there, very impatiently for another 15 minutes... With just screaming toddlers EVERYWHERE mind you. FINALLY, someone comes on the PA telling us that the fireworks have been postponed due to "the weather" and will be rescheduled for tomorrow at 9:30pm. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!? Oh man. I felt like rioting. Like seriously, I don't think anyone was as pissed as me and Mike.

So we rush to the parking gurage to get our damn car. UGH! If you know Hampton Roads drivers, you'll under stand this... But i'll just make it short. It took us an hour and 5 minutes to just get OUT of the parking gurage... And we were only on the 5th floor. Mike ran up the stairs to get to the car ASAP... I had to push the stroller up all the levels with the baby on my hip to meet him up there. So we get out of the parking gurage and the grid lock wasn't any better. We finally got home at 11:36pm... and now here it is almost 1am and I'm still up and pissed off from this evening... But the thing that pisses me off the most was that it was ALL for nothing. Nothing about tonight was "fun" I just delt with the crappy food and crowds because there WAS supposed to be fireworks... But you know what. Good for the city. They postponed the Fireworks long enough that it finally did start to rain at 10:30... Ten freakin thirty?!? Tell me why, if they knew it was gunna rain that they couldn't have started the show at 9pm and have ended it by 9:30 to get everyone out of there by 10:30? Oh hell, they COULD have started at 9:30 and been done by 10! Thirty minutes before it even started to rain! It just irritates me, the damn city made ALL this money off of parking and all the concession stands... And then doesn't have to put on a show... Oh, but they're postponing it till tomorrow so you can come back and pay them MORE of your money and just do it all over again... And then guess what, they will cancle the fireworks yet AGAIN cuz there's 50% chance of rain tomorrow!