A Few Days Late, but not a Dollar Short

On Wednesday of last week a number of awesome things happened.

During the past week, I have seen a number of Firework tents set up along the road between where I work and where I live. So on Wednesday, knowing that I was leaving the next day, decided to stop by one. I felt like a little kid again. A flood of memories from Santa Rosa filled my head, and I got all giddy looking at the possibilities in front of me. When we were little, there was one 4th of July that Chelsea and I spent in Santa Rosa California with my grandparents and cousins. Any form of fireworks are outlawed in Spokane, so these were a foreign concept to us. That 4th was awesome. From then on, I have always had a special place in my heart for ground blossoms. So that is what I was looking for in this tent. All I wanted were some blossoms. But then the lady said "These bags are buy one, get one free..." AH!!

So of course I had to get them.

They are all the cheap novelty fireworks. They are awesome. As it was only the 29th, I could not light off all of them at once... and it was in the middle of the day, so I just took one blossom.

So excited.

So I was deprived as a child by the county of Spokane. I can see why they did it (and why Pittsburgh does not care... everything here is super green right now, there is no dry grass to be seen).

Gwyn told me to be at her house around 6:30 for the start of festivities (it was the day before my birthday, but I was going to be traveling the next day). I got to her house and was surprised by her parents! Mrs. Rohrer made a lovely Brown Sugar cake, and there was much singing.

Cake and Presents!

After this, Gwyn took me to The Penn Brewery. I had not been there before, and was very impressed with the establishment.

See. we are excited!

They aimed for the prototypical German Brewery feel and nailed it. As you can see in the picture above, you walk in to this alley of sorts, on the left is the brewery and to the right is an open courtyard with tables and chairs. The inside very much reminded me of a bier hall in Germany, lots of dark wood, lots of long tables with benches. It was very fun. We sat outside and enjoyed what was turning out to be a great evening.
Both of us ordered the Schnitzel, satisfying one of my greatest birthday traditions. With mine, I also got fries to make it more like Pittsburgh. This Schnitzel was not the best. It was third, first is Max's Allegheny Tavern, then Hauffbrau Haus then Penn Brewery. But it was very goon none-the-less.

So after destroying our food, I was whisked away to Lawrenceville. We arrived at Arsenal Bowling, just in time to secure a lane for Rock and Bowl night. This place was great. It looks like an old time bowling alley, that is well used, but lovingly taken care of.

Gwyn knew that I was going to be wearing my Keen's so she brought me socks!

So while we were bowling, there was a band in the last lane, playing. I don't remember the name of the band, but they were great to watch/listen to. Kind of a upbeat Alternative Rock, with great vocals and happy tunes. I think the final score ended up being Gwyn 2, Scott 1.

I think I would like bowling more if this always was the set up...

After all of this, we headed back to Gwyn's house where I was presented with a Birthday Peanut Butter Cupcake from Dozen. And of course with it being night time, we lit off a few fireworks...

It was a great day-before celebration, and a great way to start my 4th of July Wedding Extravaganza weekend.