It's Independence Day

And right now, there's a band playing not too far, so I can hear it sitting on my bed in my hotel room. The band is trying to play a Jimmi Hendrix song and earlier attempted a Rolling Stones song.

The weather is absolutely stunning today. It's warm, sunny, wispy clouds roll along the vast expanse of sky, a gentle breeze keeps things cool.

We ate breakfast in the room again. Honestly, we're eating better than at any restaurant. Great food, comfortable, nobody hurrying us up, etc. Of course, it helps that we are a close family.

After breakfast we drove around some art galleries and antique shops. First, we went to K. Allen gallery to see if they got anything new this year that I might like. Last year, I bought 2 vases from them. I absolutely love those, but didn't find anything like that today. This gallery has the most "affordable" art in Door County in my opinion. It also has the most glass art. For some reason, I'm just fascinated by glass; it seems like a frozen river, or frozen smoke; so much movement.
Across the street from the gallery happened to be an antique shop, so we stopped in. This one had a lot of kitsch.
After these, we found a cluster of antique shops, really close to the gallery and we spent an hour or so there. All sorts of interesting things from antique furniture, to silverware, to enamelware, to linens, to anything else you might think of.
The spot also happens to be really beautiful. Lush greenery surrounded the cottages and patios, the garden gnomes and garden sculptures smiles and cast friendly shadows in the warm morning sun. It looked like a postcard.

Our next stop was the Edgewood Orchard Galleries. This gallery has a lot of sculptures and even a sculpture garden. I have to say that I'm not a big fan of their sculptures and consider only a scant few to be OK. They're just simply not my style.
But the gallery has some interesting paintings and had one vase/vessel that I could barely walk away from; it was just amazing. It was just too expensive. We spent quite a bit of time at this gallery. Dad and Grandma enjoyed a cup of coffee here while I snapped pictures.

On our way back, we stopped at an orchard store to see what they have. I got a jar of strawberry-rhubarb jam and grandma got some cherry jam.

Lunch we had back in the hotel, of course. When I say we're eating better than at any restaurant, I mean it. Here's our typical menu for the last few days when we eat in:

• Grilled Chicken
• Baked Shrimp (and grilled to heat it up)
• Salad (tomato, onion, salt)
• Hot Dogs - 3 kinds (beef, turkey, and buffalo)

For dessert:

• Tea (green and black)
• Candy
• Zephyr in chocolate (Russian-style marshmallow covered in chocolate)
• Grapes
• Cherries
• Jam (we just bought it today and wanted to try it)

As much as I like fireworks, I think we're skipping them tonight. We're all too tired and I'm too sneezy.