Clear Lake Shores, Texas - "A little slice of paradise"

We love living in this small town. For a variety of reasons. One of them being the term "small town." The other being this weekend. 4th of July weekend. We realized last night that in the (almost) five years we've lived here, we've been around and available for the July 4th activities once.

When we first moved here I worked for the City, so I was always downtown helping to coordinate the Freedom Over Texas event. And we stayed downtown for a couple nights, so we weren't around here. Then the following year we went to our friends house in East Texas. The next we were here, but had a bunch of people over so we didn't partake in the fun activities on the island. And last year we were moving back in after being out of our house thanks the Hurricane Ike.

And man, do I LOVE THIS PLACE! There's a parade on July 4th to help celebrate the birth of our country. Everyone loves a good parade (especially me!), but it's even better when it's a bunch of golf carts led by the police in their golf cart. Then we have a big party at Jarboe Bayou Park for most of the day, complete with hot dogs and all of the good July 4th fare. But what's even better is the camaraderie among islanders - which is evidenced by the HUGE (and I mean HUGE) water war that takes place this weekend.

If you don't know much about the island that we live on, it's about two miles around. There is one main road on and off, and it pretty much splits the island in half - east and west. So, the water war is on - east vs. west. The kids love it (OK, maybe the grown ups love it just as much, if not more), because they get to fire their squirt guns at innocent bystanders. (I'm telling you... if you just happen to be standing in your yard talking to your neighbor, and someone from the opposite side of the island drives by on their golf cart, your hosed... literally. Yes, I am speaking from experience.) The contraptions that some of these people come up with to hold water on their golf carts is amazing. AH-MAZ-ING. But it's so much fun. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else on the planet.

We received a phone call last night from the city (through the automated system), and it was the city administrator and chief of police reminding us of the weekend's activities. He signed off by saying "everyone play nice." Ha! I love that even the chief of police knows what's going on and gets a little jab in.

But, let's not forget what this great holiday is all about. What's even better than living in Clear Lake Shores, Texas, is living in the great country of the United States of America. The home of the free and the brave. The greatest country on this planet. Thank you to all of the men and women who have fought for our freedom, and continue to fight for our freedom. I've said it before, and I'll say it again... y'all are my heroes. It's because of each and every one of you that we get to live the wonderful lives that we do.

So, here's hoping that your "little slice of paradise" wherever you live has just as much fun on a daily basis - and holidays - as ours. Happy 4th of July and Happy Birthday America!