May the fourth be with you...

New York City, 4th of July!

A day for families to put their home made fireworks to the test, soak up the sun, wear skimpy blue, red & white combos, and purchase blow-up backyard pools to survive the stifling heat.

For me, Independence Day celebrated exactly that...my independence!

Independent Laura sat on Long Beach, eating foot long hero's, mixed berry fruit salads, and bucket loads of organic spiked lemonade. Simply superb!

After a lazy day having intimate relations with my air-conditioner, it was 5pm before we could muster ourselves into the car & hit the road bound for Long Beach.

The boys decided they needed beach toys to play with. First stop was CVS; the cities answer to EVERYTHING! The shelves dripped in an array of frisbees, racquets, balls, bats; you name it they had it. But in true male form, nothing was good enough for the boys. Especially after a quick iPhone search revealed that we were 100m away from Toys 'R Us...but alas, it was nowhere to be found. Thank God for the local beach shops overflowing with US flag printed paraphernalia. The boys jumped on board the US flag printed paddles & balls and to the beach we went.

The weather had cooled nicely, the spiked lemonade was working its magic, and the food was going down a treat. A beautiful night was had by all, and after an extremely giggly ride home, and an interesting trip to 7-Eleven, I arrived at my front door at 1.30am.

I decided the night was still young, and with a phone call to Eloise and a quick train trip into Manhattan, the night lingered on....

There was a rooftop with hedges, and fairy lights galore. The Empire State stood in the backdrop, glistening in all its evening beauty. Men were coming at us, from every corner of the globe. This was not a joke. It seemed we were pulling all the guys that night, but not one of the from the US of A. It seemed awfully un-independent of us, and tonight all we wanted was some American boy interaction. Jager bombs, tap waters, tip after tip. A 24hr gym, with a fitness freak inside (at 2am). A 24hr diner, that was packed to the brim, but alas, not even NYC can pull a liquor license through the night.

So the night finally ended, it was 5am. Independence day was gone, and the city was sleeping (yes, believe it or not). The sun was rising, and yellow cabs were in full abundance. So in I hopped back to my new found love, Brooklyn.

Home sweet home...and oh what a way to celebrate my independence...