Happy Fourth of July!!!

I hope everyone had a great 4th! Kel (my roommate) and I definitely realized we live in Mayberry tonight as we trekked over to the main street (20th Street) in Homewood, set out our 8-dollar-Walgreens chairs, and watched the fireworks at the Vulcan over the mountains. How beautiful!!! (Just imagine the image to the left is the Vulcan instead of Lady Liberty and you're looking at what I saw.) The fire department does this every year. They pretty much have a street carnival down 20th -- complete with carnival rides and the ice cream man. The fireworks started at nine, along with the traditional patriotic music in the background. They broadcast the music over one of the radio stations so that everyone who has parked wherever (and I do mean on the side of the mountain) can enjoy the same music and fireworks! It was great! We saw several people we knew, mostly from church, and I had the wonderful opportunity to get to see one of the kids that I teach in swim lessons. I was surprised by this kid in a stroller yelling, "Hey, swim teacher! Hey swim teacher!" He has always been one of my favorites, but if there was any question before, he's definitely my favorite now! We'll have to catch up tomorrow at 3. We'll compare stories.

Anyway, if at all I thought the day was a loss, things definitely changed around 7:30 tonight. Kelly and I headed out to Vestavia to satisfy a craving for Backyard Burgers, only to find out that they were closed! Who cares if it's the Fourth of July! You're the best burger business ever! You're supposed to be open! So anyway, Kel and I headed back towards Homewood and after some thought, we decided to get Rally's.

Now, I know you're thinking, where are you going with this, but I urge you, please continue.

Story Time!

So I've not had a great love for Rally's for quite some time now. It has nothing to do with Rally's, so again, please continue. When I was little, there was a Rally's down the street from my grandparents' house (Dad's family). Grandma and Papaw would always get us Rally's and we definitely didn't mind it. But oh, that would change. One day, Grandma went and got Rally's for us and brought it back for us to eat. We all sat down at the table to eat, and somehow my cousin (who was about 6 years older than I) and I started to fight about something. I obviously shot my mouth off because it made her so mad that she went and got a bottle of nail polish remover and pour it all over my Rallyburger. I never ate Rally's again.

I'm pretty sure that was about 15 years ago. I hadn't eaten a Rallyburger since and so today, I decided to face my fears and go for it. It was the best burger I've had in a long while. Go Rally's!