GOD BLESS AMERICA... it's been stuck in my head for weeks now!

I know it's past the Fourth of July, but you can always write about how you feel about your nation in your own journal... and guess what, this is one of my journals!

Okay, so, the Fourth was awesome here in Bar Harbor... then again, when has it not been? MDI can sure put on a show. The night before I spent at the Dalton's house with Chelsea. Anne and Greg weren't there. They had gone down to Portland to spend the Fourth with Greg's family. Logan and Andrew went with them but Steve stayed home. He had work. We stayed up ultra late talking to my parents, making peanut butter cookies (that I forgot to take out of the oven in time and so they were much too baked), and watching an episode of Wildfire that Chelsea had taped. That's her favorite show and she wanted me to see it.

We didn't go to the parade. I wanted to go hiking but it would have just been too much on my knees. (I still haven't gotten to Wal*Mart to get my tablets.) So instead we went on a nice long walk along some of the carriage roads. Those really are an engineering masterpiece. We only had to stop twice so that I could rest. (It's not that my knees hurt so much, it's that I can feel them start to hurt and I want to avoid the real thing at all costs, so I tend to take it easy until I can get my pills. They've slowly been getting worse as time wears on, but I hope to get to Ellsworth on Monday.)

Anyway, I hung out at the dorms until later when Chels picked me up to go to Cadillac with some Polish friends of mine. We stayed until the sunset then we got off that windy, freezing place as soon as possible. (Which turned out to be nice, because we missed the hardcore traffic.)

When we got to Bar Harbor, we parked at our friends' apartment. Chels walked over to Agamont Park with them a little bit after I walked over with my Polish friends. We met up with a ton of our friends from the dorm, but later I split off and hung out with Chels and the single adults from the church. We watched the fireworks and then went back to the apartment to hang out a little bit. It was really fun! We really just hung out. Some of us were in the living room while the rest of us were in the kitchen. Those of us in the kitchen played a really fun game where you just give everyone else in the room choices between two things, and they answer as to which they prefer. It's really just a getting to know you game, but we really had fun with it!

Well, that was my Fourth of July. I hope that all of you had a great Fourth! As great as mine was! I hear that out in Saipan you were having an awesome time! And congrats to Vasu on his first Independence Day!

Loving My Country Every Day -

- Mal