Pyrotechnic event

Yesterday it was the 4th of July - the American independence day.

We were notified of the day already last week by this public notice which warns us that there'll be fireworks from 9 pm till 9:23 (!) in the nearest park. Apparently it's part of the fireworks section of the ordinance that the neighbors have to be warned when somebody orders fireworks - such things are not for mere mortals around these parts. We actually live quite a way from this park, so there wouldn't be a high risk of having a rocket go through the roof of our house, but now at least we can't sue them for forgetting to warn us...

We did celebrate the day by going to Santa Barbara - as there was also warnings about inflatable jumpers, face paintings and flamenco dancing in the park! We started the evening by eating crepes at Pacific Crepes, where we got an excellent opportunity to test our proficiency in French as the waitress opened up the conversation in French! Tue managed to order both cider, onion soup, and two nice crepes (one with goat cheese, walnuts, and prosciutto, the other with salmon, spinach, and portobello mushrooms) for us. Since they had both creme brulée and profiteroles on the menu we kinda had to test them too. Rather an unamerican gesture to be eating an completely French meal on their national holiday, but at least the restaurant closed early so the people working there could also go to the beach and watch the fireworks.

We were surprised to learn just HOW much space the Santa Barbarians take up when they're all on the beach, and particularly afterwards when all of them wanted to walk under the highway at the at the same time! The firework was - of course - primarily blue, red, and white, but apart from that it wasn't that memorable in and of itself. But it was nice to stand on the wharf and look inland at the mountains while the sun was setting - and since we just made it on the bus home we actually consider it a pretty good evening.