The nice thing about the 4th of July being on a Sunday this year, is that it turns into a 3-day weekend. So my celebration actually started yesterday. It began with my braving the Ward 4th of July breakfast. I walked across the street to the church, watched the flag ceremony, listened to a musical number, then stood around feeling pretty stupid. I stood in a corner so no one would notice me, and kept my eye out for a hasty exit. None was really forthcoming, though, and eventually the Bishopric 1st Counselor came my way and after talking for awhile, invited me to join his family. So I stayed for breakfast and ended up having a pleasant time visiting with them and the Bishop, who sat with us.
After that, I walked home, changed clothes, and loaded up the bike in the back of the car. My objective was to drive down to Liberty Park and ride around there. There's just a few too many hills in my neighborhood, and I'm not that good on them yet. And Liberty Park is pretty flat. So, after a quick drive through the old neighborhood, I arrived at the park and proceeded to do a few laps. All was going pretty well - I stayed around the outside of the drive, and other than a few issues with the gears, I thought I was doing pretty well. About halfway through my third lap, a cute police officer on a bike comes up along side me. The conversation went something like this:
Cute Police Officer: How ya doin'?
Tracie: Good. How are you?
Cute Police Officer: Good. Are you skilled enough to go one-handed for a few seconds?
Tracie: As long as it's just a few seconds. Pretty obvious I'm not that skilled.
Cute Police Officer: I can only do a few seconds myself. Here you go. (Hands me what looks to be a pamphlet.)
I continue riding - still halfway to go to get back to my car, but at this point, totally wondering what I've done to just get handed something by a police officer. I get back to the car, just in time to see the cute police officer and his female partner go riding by (were they following me?). He smiles, and I say good morning again, because I believe in being polite to police officers who just handed you something and are following you. But they kept riding, and I finished loading the truck back up. I finally get back in the car to look at the pamphlet. It was a Road Guide for Bicyclists and Motorists, printed by the SLPD. Thankfully it wasn't a ticket, but I still wonder what I did or was doing that the officer handed it to me. Was he flirting? Was he being friendly? Was he making sure I wouldn't fall over? I'll never know. But it might be worth it to go back to the park again and find out.
I came home, cleaned up, and spent the rest of the afternoon doing laundry. I talked to my youngest sister for a few minutes (they're big fans of the 4th), and also ran an errand.
Early in the evening, I left to meet up with Inge for a quick bite at Crown Burger before heading to Temple Square. I had tickets to a patriotic concert at the Tabernacle, by the National Guard 23rd Army Band. We arrived at Temple Square, and while I went into the South Visitor Center to use the restroom, Inge ran into a sister missionary from Indonesia, who's the daughter of Inge's former mission president (pretty fortuitous of me to have to go to the bathroom right then). I came out and joined them and we visited for several minutes, then headed to the tabernacle. Along the way, we ran into some friends from the 19th Ward that we ended up sitting with. The concert was absolutely terrific. Most of the band is in Morocco right now, but the few that are still here were joined by former band members for the evening. They started with "Washington Post March", which got everyone's feet tapping, then had everyone stand and sing along for the "National Anthem". I've never heard it sung with such fervor, and there really wasn't a dry eye in the building. They played several other things - patriotic and otherwise. They played all the service hymns, and asked you to stand if you served or had family serve (since I have family who served, I stood for the Army hymn). They finally ended the evening with "Stars and Stripes Forever". It was a fabulous evening.
We hung out on Temple Square for awhile after that, then I headed home, just in time for extra traffic trying to get into Sugarhouse for the big fireworks show. So I took a long way to get home. I thought our neighborhood would be pretty clear, since we're several blocks from Sugarhouse Park, but I was lucky to be able to get in my driveway. With all those people around, I decided to stay in. I discovered that you can see the fireworks from my back windows, so I enjoyed a bit of the show that way before turning in.
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