Proud to be American!

We made our annual trip to Marina Del Rey for the 4Th. The firework show there has become my favorite. We drive the boats into the marina right up to the barge they fire from. The reflection of the fireworks off the water and the way they light up all the boats in the marina is such a beautiful sight! I am in awe of it every time I see it.

Due to heavy traffic, we stay the night on the boat. It's kind of like camping, but we have access to the private dock showers and power. This must have been a selling point for my friend Katie, because she decided to join us, as her boys were with their Dad. I had her at, "Don't worry, you can still straighten your hair!" Although hair was a lost cause with the humidity from the ocean, and wind from taking the boat out.

We FINALLY got to take our yellow boat, Phanie. This was her first trip of the summer and Bobby was stoked to captain our boat. There is a whole story behind "our" boat. This was the very boat Bobby and I grew up on together.

I was Bryce's age when my family first bought her. The back of the boat said "Stephanie." Someone started peeling off the name thinking we wouldn't want that name. My Dad told them to stop before they peeled the whole thing off. "Phanie" was left and it caught on.

My Dad gave us this boat when he bought his magnificent new one. But it really is amazing we have Phanie back. She is like the recycled boat from my past. My Dad sold her to some friends awhile back, who then sold it to their friends. We didn't have Phanie for many years. My Dad actually bought her back from the friends of our friends years later just to turn around and give her to us, after he completely remodeled the inside and rebuilt the engine. Did I mention I have the best and most generous Dad?

The whole history behind this boat makes Phanie very special to me. Now I get to see my kids jump aboard and smile the way I used to when I was little. Bobby let the kids drive at one point and I had to hold back tears. Ridiculous, the emotions a boat can have on ya!

We were trying to come up with new names for her now that she is ours. Although we have always called her Phanie, she has been a different name with all of the different owners. She doesn't have a name on the back now. I thought "Parks Place" sounded cute. Bobby came up with "Sparks," saying it was our name backwards. I had to tell him it was just our name with an "S" on the front. That's what a few beers can do to ya! My Dad, going off of Bobby's genius liked "Sparky." It was hard to come up with something as good as the one she's got, so we may just leave history alone, although it would be cute to give her a name pertaining to our family, as a transition type thing. Anyway....

The trip was a success. The kids behaved and kept busy jumping from our boat to my Dad's. I'm getting better at being less of a nervous wreck and try to cool it as long as they have their life jackets on. This trip marked the exact point at which Bryce is officially a "big" kid, and I officially became the lame parent. There were several older kids at the dock. They were all fishing and touching the dead squid and fish bait. You know, totally gross boy stuff. Bryce was hanging out with them, probably feeling on top of the world with all the comradery going on. My son was fitting in with these older boys. He's such a cool kid. The problem came in when the older boys wanted to go to their dock and not hang around our boat anymore, where I was able to have a watchful eye on Bryce. The boys started walking away. Bryce followed without even thinking to ask or tell me where he was going. This is the EXACT moment I had to realize he had grown up. Does it really happen that fast? With just a conversation like this?:

"Bryce! Where do you think you are going?"

"I'm going with my friends to go fishing"

"Well you can't go by yourself, I'll get your Dad to go with you!"

In the most familiar face, the one I had with my parents once too, he turns over his shoulder as if to say, "Come on Mom! Play it cool in front of my friends. You are embarrassing me!!"

All that comes out is a long "Mooooooommmm!" In a tone that said it all. I embarrassed him by making him feel like a baby. I was uncool and he wanted to hang with his cooler friends.

So, I let him go, as painful as it was to watch him walk a few docks down. I reminded him that he had to keep his life jacket on and he said, "OK, thanks Mom!"

And just like that, my baby was a boy!! Hard to hold back the tears at this realization and I'm not sure I will be able to handle graduations or marriages.

All and all it was a very eventful trip. Bryce grew up, Phanie had her maiden voyage and we all stayed entertained with the commotion on the dock. It was an interesting group of people at the docks this year. We had a sailboat with transsexuals aboard. I don't know if I would have even paid them much attention but my mom told us that one of them just had "'the" surgery and was offering showing off the great job the surgeon did. Everyone passed, but they became the ones to watch. They fought with each other, then had waaaayy toooo much PDA the next moment. At one point, there was a very "Titanic" moment on the bow of their boat. He/She stood on the bow with arms sprawled out. We got whiffs of weed from time to time. Just interesting. It got even more interesting when a boat with African Americans, also reeking of weed, docked next to them. I pretended to take a picture of Katie to snap a shot of their interaction. It was more entertaining than watching the actual firework show. America is definitely an array of different peeps!

Can't wait until next year.