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We were at Banyan Garden on Saturday night after a whole day of doing laundry. Banyan is one fine restaurant that serves Malaysian/Singaporean/Thai food.

 
We missed the controversial Fourth of July parade in Fremont which took place a mere three blocks from where we live. We were in church that morning, then as soon as we got home my wife had to take an online quiz for school.

After last year’s fireworks-deprived Fourth of July, my wife and I wanted to bring the family to some sort of fireworks show this year. We had season passes for Paramount’s Great America so we decided to go there. We found out too late, however, that Great America did an Iraq government handover stunt by scheduling the fireworks show one day early because of security concerns. But instead of fearing eruptions of violence from insurgents, they feared eruptions of violence from gang members. *sigh* So we settled for doing our own fireworks in the nearest city where it is legal to do so, in Union City.

The next day we headed off to Bonfante Gardens in Gilroy. It’s a theme park with amusement rides and unique trees set in beautifully landscaped gardens.
 
 
 
 

More pictures here.

Here is our Fourth of July weekend in pictures. No, you will not see spectacular shots of fireworks displays because, frankly, my wife and I didn’t plan our Fourth of July that well this year. Hopefully, we more than made up for it by attending all these other events around the Bay Area.

Saturday morning was spent at the Farmer’s Market in Union City. We took a little break at Paddy’s Coffee House which I discovered was serving up free wi-fi access to the public (joy!):

Later that day, we headed out to San Francisco to go to the Fillmore Street Jazz Festival. Having lived in balmy East Bay for several years has made me forget about the cold summer days and the terrible parking in San Francisco. I came unprepared with only a light shirt on and I ended up parking three blocks away up a steep hill.

The next day, after church, we went back to San Francisco to watch the free outdoor performance of the San Francisco Symphony at the Stern Grove Festival. We came prepared this time with our long sleeve shirts and light jackets. The conductor, acknowledging the chilly weather, spiced up his set with the symphony’s rendition of the Can-Can. Several audience members did high-kicks to warm up.

On Monday, we attended a wedding. Yes, on a Monday. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding held at the Brazilian Room in Tilden Regional Park in Berkeley.

My goodness, my blog is turning out to be a photolog, isn’t it? Well, I’ve acquired an itchy trigger finger ever since I got my digital camera. I just hope my blog page doesn’t load slowly because of the pics. Please guys, let me know when it does. I’ll move the pictures somewhere else in the site if necessary. Well, I may not be taking too many pictures for long anyway. Because of my carelessness, the LCD screen of my camera cracked when I flung my backback across the van floor. I can only take pictures through the viewfinder now, which is okay I guess.