July 4th on the Cape

This year Amanda and I spent 4th of July weekend at her parents' Cape house. Her parents were in Chicago for a wedding, so there was plenty of room for three of our friends, too.
The weather was not great, although it was warm the entire time. There was a period of good sun on Friday afternoon, which we took full advantage of by playing bocce in the immaculately-maintained yard. Saturday was a total rain-out, but we got to the beach on Sunday.
Most of the weekend was split between sleeping, eating, and drinking, but we managed to get some bowling in as well.
Unfortunately there wasn't anywhere for us to go to see fireworks, although there were enough backyard shows going on to remind us what day it was. Other than that, it was a great weekend, and a nice follow-up to the Jersey vacation.

Stone Harbor

Towards the end of June, I went with Amanda and my family to the south shore of New Jersey. If you've never been to the beach there, it's a lot nicer than you think. The sand is really fine, almost like a powder, and the beach itself is very well maintained. We stay in a cottage a few blocks away and for the most part it is completely awesome. Amanda came down with us last year, too, so everything was pretty routine. We've gone down there basically every year since about 1981, and I'm definitely looking forward to next year already.