Sunday July 4 on the USS Intrepid

Sunday was hot hot hot. Because of this we stayed in doors cleaning the apartment and doing loads of laundry. Now all this shouldn't seem to take all day but because the clothes washer and dryer are small it took about five loads to finish it all......and that took time. Terry fixed a vent fan in the bathroom that had "frozen." The fridge got cleaned out plus a closet. I went grocery shopping and then made a large salad for lunch. Sounds boring but needed to be done.

About 5pm we headed out for the West Side and the Intrepid. We walked over to 2nd Ave to catch the bus to 42nd Street......bus ended up walking the six blocks and caught the M42 Crosstown which because of the holiday was only going as far as 10th Ave not to 12th Ave. The bus was jammed and everyone on it was going to the West Side to watch the fireworks. Every 4th Macy's provides the display from six huge barges that are stationed in the Hudson River. The West Side Parks and Walkways from about the Chelsea Piers to 59th Street are corded off and they were filled with celebrating folks. All those who had tickets for the Intrepid were to be at 46th and 11th to be let onto the ship a 6:00. There was a line of people that stretched almost three blocks long!!! This was the first time the Intrepid had opened the boat for the 4th so lessons were learned as far as moving people was concerned......but all in line were still up beat and patient......most anyway. By about 7:00 we were on board and rather than go through the innards of the boat we headed for the flight deck immediately. Wow what views of the river and the parks and the people camped on the streets below and what amazing airplanes that are on the carriers deck! We looked at the airplanes. The F-8 that Terry flew on most of his missions was there plus the Blackbird( it flies at 82,000 ft - yak) which he also flew on several special missions too. After about a hour of this we moved with a glass of wine each to the fantail of the boat where there were seats set up in rows for the firework show. We found two seats by the railing on the south side of the boat; from that vantage point we could see five of the six huge firework barges in the river. We had really three seats as a young photographer from the NY Times had us "guard" one of his cameras attached to a tripod that he left immediately by the open railing. There was a "fly by" done by about five helicopters in formation and then the NYC Fire Boats did huge water sprays/displays. Back light by the setting sun the effect of the spray turned golden. There were about five boats doing this and finally two of the largest did red/white/blue spays. As the sun set completely, large speakers on board began broadcasting. A radio announcer welcomed all to the Macy's 4th of July Firework Display. Their music was coordinated with the explosions......as we have all seen on TV. But this time we were right next to one of the speakers and the "bombs bursting in air" were almost directly above us. It was breath taking and very emotional. When they started to play all the anthems of the various services....I started to weep.........by the time they played the National Anthem I'm sure that many were weeping too and all of us were standing with smiles of pride on our faces.

What a night..................and as we left.......all 2000 of us on the boat and the other 6000 plus in our area on the streets everyone started to walk toward Times Square!!!!! With nary a bus in sight......we walked home cutting through Grand Central Station then up to 46 and then zigzagged on up to 48th and 3rd. Another long walk......but worth every step. Happy 4th Everyone!