Old Country Buffet...

After watching Italy defeat Germany in yesterday's World Cup semifinals, an ironically un-American passtime for the 4th of July, we decided to step it up a notch and hit the grocery store for some creamcicles and Fresca. Feeling guilty and sluggish from chips, dip, salsa and devouring the box of creamcicles, three of us went to play frisbee in the beautiful afternoon sun. During our little catch on a local baseball field we talked about how we could best celebrate this most uniquely American holiday. Of course we thought about seeing fireworks later but dinner was on our minds. My friend Aaron wondered, "what could be more American than the Old Country Buffet on the day of our nation's birth?" Where else can you join crowds of fellow Americans for a feast of unlimited proportions and substandard quality? What is more American than stuffing your face in an attempt to numb the desire that food could never satisfy? All the while sticking to the classic American buffet philosophy of making sure they're not making any money off of you as you do your best to saunter up to the bar a third time for one more meatball or cinnamon roll.

Norman Rockwell prints adorned the walls as a reminder that we were in fact living the good life. Taking us back to the good old days of innocence. As we ate our soft serve vanilla ice cream with sprinkles and drank really bad coffee we tried to estimate how many calories we'd just consumed and wondered how long it would take to "walk it off" - another classic American ritual after gluttonous indulgence.

During our meal we remembered old family 4th of July traditions. Parades, home fireworks, apple pie and watermelon. Our hands down favorite was the egg toss at the neighborhood fair. I remembered how some of the older kids would play with a hardboiled egg defying competitors with their distace and flat out overhand baseball throws of a seemingly fragile egg.

Our evening culminated with a fabulous fireworkds show from a barge in Lake Union and by Ryan's insistence on a pitcher of Pabst Blue Ribbon (introduced at the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893)to cap off our all American 4th of July.