4th of July in McCarthy With Friends

Long before the kids were out of school for the summer, we had tentatively planned for our friends, the Johnsons, to visit us in McCarthy for the Fourth of July weekend. We’ve been visiting McCarthy at least once every summer since Woodsen and I met, and that usually meant staying with friends and enjoying their hospitality. Now that we had a family cabin in McCarthy, we were excited to host our first guests.

The weather was sunny and warm for the Johnsons’ arrival on July 3rd. We welcomed them as they arrived in their four-place cub, and soon their plane was unpacked and the kids had found their way to the kiddie pool to cool off.

The next morning was leisurely, but eventually we donned our red, white, blue, and glitter, and hopped on the wheelers to head to town for the 12:00 parade.

After a 15 min ride across the footbridge and into town, we were all smiles as we met friends other friends and awaited the parade.

The parade was filled with local charm and rustic creativity, and looped around the main drag twice to make it last a bit longer. Most of the candy ran out after the first loop, which I was grateful for.

After the parade, the games started. There was a pie-eating contest, followed by the Doggie talent show (the dogs were distracted by the pie on the ground and not on their A game), a nail-pounding contest, egg toss, tug-of-war, hula-hooping contest, assorted races, and of course, the slow bike race. The slow bike race is exactly what it sounds like: the last one to cross the finish line wins, and the competition was fierce!

This year, the kids were all about participating and could be found pounding nails, hopping in a gunny sack, pulling on a rope in the tug-of-war, and eating pie.

After the games, we stopped for ice cream before heading back to the house. There were festivities at the toe of the glacier and around town later on, but after spending the last few hours in the hot sun, we were all ready to head back to the house for a leisurely evening.

Happy 250th Birthday to the Great country we get to call home!!

Here’s a video recap of all the fun we had in McCarthy for the 4th of July.

If you want to check out more 4th of July festivities, you can read about our 4th of July in McCarthy when Melozi was a baby here.