4th of July Celebrations

While we await the boys much anticipated visit, we took off late yesterday afternoon for an overnighter in Alpine (with a stop in Terlingua) to celebrate Independence Day West Texas style. This was the first time in many years - perhaps 6 or 7 - that we have actually been in the United States to celebrate the 4th, as we usually trek to Canada each year at this time to enjoy the Montreal Jazz Festival (and beer scene) which takes place from late June through the first week of July. So we had a great time re-acquainting ourselves with our childhood traditions of parades, picnics and fireworks.

Our first stop was the town of Study Butte, just outside the park boundaries for the annual Study Butte/Terlingua 4th of July parade and float contest. After the parade we joined all of our new neighbors for hot dogs, beans, chili and potato salad at the EMS/Fire station which had opened it's doors to host the annual holiday shindig. Despite the eclectic and often odd reputation of the towns (which we've documented/celebrated in earlier blog entries), it was a notably traditional holiday celebration.

This Parade included Border Patrol on Horses

Our holiday barbecue

After the friendly barbecue we headed out to Alpine, Texas for the fireworks and the remnants of their annual 4th of July party at Kokernot park (the local minor league ballpark) and listened to some great live music that was a fun mix of Texas and Mexican influences with some great horns and rhythms and of course, a country dance floor. Later we joined the crowd and spread our blanket out on the grass field to watch the fireworks.

West Texas treats were pretty much the same as East Coast treats (fattening!)

Enjoying the band in the early evening

Beautiful minor league ball field modeled after Wrigley Field

All in all, it was a really enjoyable holiday and true representation of "small town" America. As we sat on our blanket watching the kids running around at dusk with various glowing objects, food on sticks, and sticky sno-cone faces, it brought back memories of our own childhood picnics and those with our own kids back at Capron Park, McCoy stadium and other places from our past and we enjoyed the trip down memory lane even as we enjoyed the warm Texas evening, far away from the places of our memories.