And the Rockets' Red Glare

What does the 4th of July mean?  It's the day that we gained our independence from England.  It means grilling hot dogs and eating watermelon.

And, it means fireworks.

So what better way to celebrate the 4th of July, than by throwing a spontaneous party and blowing up Mexican fireworks?

With America's 235th birthday we are officially 1/4 of the way through our time in Tijuana, and we have done many (but not all) of our Tijuana bucket list.  Find the zonkey-- check.  See a Mexican soccer game-- check.  Eat delicious tacos from street vendors-- check.  Shoot off Mexican fireworks-- CHECK.

On our way back from the beach camping, we stopped in Rosarito to stock up for Independence Day.  We stayed away from the most absurdly dangerous items, but I did see someone a little more courageous who strolled into the store and announced in typical American fashion, without any attempt at Spanish, "Where's the really big stuff!"  I'm glad I wasn't duty officer.  According to the guy behind the counter, the "M3000" that Jacob was eying could have blown up a cow.  I don't know what the loud American bought.

Which one makes the biggest "BOOM!"

With a bag full of the stuff you can't buy in California, we headed home to prepare.  First, we prepped the watermelon and fired up the grill, and invited a bunch of people over to our house.

Why, yes, that is a watermelon Jack-o-lantern.

After stuffing ourselves with good food and conversation, we headed down to the empty end of our street to show our patriotic spirit in Mexico.

Is that it?

Oh, Wait.  That's better.

Do it again!

 

 

And now for the Grand Finale!

Unfortunately, Lisa wasn't able to get a picture of the grand finale rocket exploding because the fuse was so short that I didn't even have time to move my hand before it took off into the night.  Fortunately, I still have all my fingers and both my eyebrows, but just barely.
 

Our Grand Finale picture.

Mark another thing off the bucket list for Tijuana.  I just hope we don't run out of things to do before we leave here, but I doubt that will happen, especially since we keep finding more things we want to do before we go.

By the way, while we are talking about American things and memories, I will leave you with these pictures that we took a few weeks ago at a Tijuana baseball game.

Los Truenos won it it with a walk off homer in the Bottom of the 9th

A red-blooded American boy.