4th of July - How Memorable It Was!

So I got some slack from a few of my friends for writing a post from class. If only you guys knew the *pain* we go through every Tuesday and Thursday sitting in this class…..and you would be blogging too!!!!

Anyway, because today was such a good day, I felt like blogging. But before that, I noticed that I really didn’t talk about the 4th of July long weekend. So I am going to start there first.

4th of July is of course USA’s Independence Day. This year it was on a Friday, so Neeraj and I were very lucky to have our dear friend Beth come and visit us in STL. I was very excited because Beth hadn’t seen our house yet, and I wanted her to see it.

So she was coming on Thursday night at around 10pm - perfect, something for Neeraj and I look forward to while we sit in this horribly boring class. Of course that would be the day that our professor would keep us late an extra 20 minutes…so we get to the airport about 10 minutes before Beth’s flight was going to land.

She arrived, and we knew from that moment, it was going to be an exciting 3 day weekend. So then that night we had leftover Indian food for dinner (at like 11 pm!). Beth said that she wanted to sleep in the next morning, and Neeraj & I were very okay with that. Guess who woke up first? Beth!!! Ya ya her “sleep in” was like 8.30! So then on Saturday morning, Beth and I made yummy and delicious pancakes on my griddle topped with strawberries and whipped cream!! It was amazing! Then that day we got ready and went to the Botanical Gardens. I guess because it was 4th of July it was free admission which was great for us.

Botanical Gardens were really beautiful, and we spent about three or four hours just roaming around there. Beth took lots of photos while Neeraj and I just looked around. Then once we were done there, we asked Beth what she would like to have for dinner. She knew that in our home every Friday night was Taco Bell Night, so she too, wanted to have join in the Verma Family fun of Taco Bell night!

Then we came home, and I don’t remember if we did much after that. We definitely didn’t know when the fireworks were going to be near our home, so we decided to take the walk to the area where the fireworks were going to be to check it out. We walked into the frozen custard place for some delicious dessert and then began to notice that there weren’t a lot of people around us. Beth said that we should ask someone, so we told her to ask the frozen custard ladies. So she went back in there only to find out that the fireworks are on Saturday! So then we walked home…only to watch some amazing fireworks in all directions — pretty awesome.

We came home to play a game of Settlers of Catan, which is the best game in the world. Even though we were playing the original version it was a very long game, at the end, I won. We went to sleep after 1 am.

Saturday morning came around, and again Beth woke up really early. She was tensed about a decision she was going to make very soon, hence wasn’t sleeping well. We spent the day playing tennis. It was absolutely wonderful! Beth is a great player, and Neeraj was great competition for her. We all played for like three hours, and it was very enjoyable. It was hard to tell that Beth hadn’t played for a while - she was playing in stride.

After tennis we came home and relaxed. After a while, we began to make dinner. Dinner was going to be great that night because I was going to make a traditional Indian dinner for her. She had her book and pen as she wrote down the recipes. We had samosas, kachoris, and spring rolls for appetizer, then we had mattar paneer, daal, rice, and naan as part of the meal. All was good, and the first time that I actually made the dishes with exact measurements so that Beth could write down the recipe. I shared with her all of my dear Mumma’s secret recipes - she is sworn to secrecy! Just kidding.

After eating sooooo much, we all flopped down, and chilled out before we headed for the fireworks again that night. We couldn’t go without having frozen custard, but this time, the line was out the door, so we knew the fireworks show was going to happen. The fireworks show was great but seemed to happen so quickly. It was synchronized with patriotic music, and it was really well done.

Then we walked back to our house (which by the way took about 20 minutes one way), and played the extended version of Settlers of Catan. So Diane and Daniel get excited, NP knows how to play the fun version of the game!!! Anyway, Beth won that game but it was alot of fun!

We went to sleep, and then on Sunday….finally…. Beth slept in!!! I had to go wake her up at 11am! We had pancakes and strawberries topped again, and it was delicious. Then we didn’t do much..atleast I can’t remember. We did watch the very awesome Federer vs. Nadal Wimbeldon final match. What an absolutely amazing match!!! Neeraj and I were going for Federer and Beth was going for Nadal. So it was quite funny because every time Federer got a point, Neeraj and I would make a lot of noise, and then when Nadal would come back with a point, Beth would cheer and make a lot of noise!!

The match was really long..we had STL style pizza (Imo’s) and then it was time for Beth’s flight. Neeraj and I couldn’t believe how quickly three days had passed - it just seemed like she had just gotten there, and the weekend was all over.

We really had a great time with her, and we hope to go visit her soon too! We do hope that she come back to visit us again too…after all the fun we had this time.

Alvida. Jai Mata Di.