4th of July Two Weeks Early

On Wednesday, we met Alex in West Bloomfield and then went to Detroit for the fireworks! ...Quite the international event. We got there around 4:30pm, which was about five and a half hours before the fireworks. So we walked around Detroit and ate at a restaurant called New Parthenon or something like that. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We then went to the river and sat around until the fireworks started. While we were waiting, there was some kind of ruckus where chairs were flying through the air and some guy ended up face down on the ground and handcuffed. The festivities started with the Canadian flag being pulled behind a helicopter and then the American flag. And then came the fireworks, which were big, loud, and impressive. But half of them were hidden by a stupid grove of trees. The stupid fireworks people should have planned that one a little better. But we saw most of it and it was still very cool. The booms echoed off the buildings behind us and the smoke surrounded the GM building.



Afterwards, we got to the car and it only took us an hour to go a mile (or less?) to the freeway. Yes, that was quite a traffic jam. We got home around 1:30am, and Nidhal watched the replay of that day's soccer game.

Speaking of the soccer game... !!! It was already a miracle that the US made it to the semifinals. And they were playing Spain in the semifinals, which was the best team in the world. So imagine our shock when Alex informs us during the drive to his house that the score is 1-0 and that it was the US that scored. And then imagine my excitement when, while ordering our dinner, we saw that the final score was 2-0! Incredible. The US plays Brazil on Sunday in the finals!

And it has been hot. On Thursday, it was 92 degrees when I went to work at 1pm. But after a couple hours it started storming. There was almost continuous thunder for two hours. Afterwards, it wasn't any cooler, it was just a lot more humid.