The 4th of July...the 5th of July

The fourth of July! A few days late to say this but...Happy Independence Day. This is one of those unique holidays that can fall during any day of the week. When it falls on a Thursday, it just makes sense to take a vacation day on Friday and make it a four day weekend...so we did! 

We made sure to put Uncle Sam out to say "Happy Independence Day" to all! He is a Don Featherstone (the inventor of the pink plastic flamingo) blow mold from the 1990's and has his autograph etched under the base. He used to reside in one of our favorite Thrift Shops and was a favorite of the lady who used to run the Thrift Shop. She passed away years ago and the people at the Thrift Shop sold it to us for $1 (Rob asked whether it was for sale EVERY time we were there).

Our day was spent at Monica's sister's house for a family barbecue!

Our nephew was crazed by fireworks!

Rob...not crazed but he did seem mesmerized while remaining calm!

Our niece holding TWO sparklers at once!

Our brother in law, Monica and Monica's brother...but dad, it's smokey!

Monica with a sparkler...sparklEEEEEs! 

Monica's sister was in charge of handing out the sparklers to the kids!

We made a red, white and blue Jello and Cool Whip pie for the occasion...

...which the kids seemed to enjoy!!! It was a great night of fun! 

Since we had the day off on Friday, we decided to have dinner at  a Chinese/Polynesian restaurant that we have targeted for a long time. They serve exotic drinks in Tiki mugs and there are just not too many of these old style Tiki restaurants left! 

We arrived at King Yum, an old fashioned Chinese/Polynesian restaurant,  which was a one hour drive from our house. It is the closest "Tiki" restaurant to us.

The inside entrance had Tiki Gods to greet us! 

We posed with the Tiki Gods so they would bestow their favor upon us

He watched over us in our booth!

A Tiki lantern above our table...

...he looked spooky in the dark!

Exotic drinks in Tiki mugs!

They had a whole list of exotic drinks to try! We ordered one Hawaii Delight and one King Yum Special and shared them both so we could have some of each.

The Pu Pu Platter...the FLAMING Pu Pu Platter! 

This was the entrance to the other dining room...the traditional Chinese Restaurant. We were on the Polynesian side.

They gave us a private booth in which to dine! 

Another Tiki God watching over the Dining Room.

It was a GREAT time and the people who worked there were so nice! This was our first visit here but not our last. We LOVED everything about it!