Our 4th of July Celebration 2011

We celebrated a genuine 4th of July here in Cuenca this year again.  This time, we were with friends at the California Kitchen for real BBQ, salads, music and dancing.

Have to admit, since this holiday is not celebrated here, like it is in the US, it still felt a little funny for the town to be business-as-usual.  Most of our Ecuadorian friends went to work, shopped, picked up kids and fought the traffic, as they do on a normal work day.

But, we and our US  American friends went on to party, most of us all decked out in our patriotic red/white/blue and had a blast!  We were also surprised and pleased that there was a good showing of Ecuadorians at our celebration, too.  Many of them had spent time in the US or had family/friends who have...4th of July was a good excuse to celebrate the US, in their opinion, too!

Here are some pictures:

Awaiting the delicious food.  You'll recognize many of these smiling faces.

Red, blue and pearly whites...

The bar team...you can see Liza's mosaic John Wayne on the wall...

Our gracious hosts, Carol and George.

Dan and Gina digging in...You can see the food, which included sausages, ribs, chicken, baked beans, macaroni salad, cole slaw, Carol's mouth-watering home-made biscuits and desserts.  So much food, we ended up taking home enough for 3 more meals.

Music for dancing.

Glad to read notes from many of our friends/family having so much fun on 4th of July, too!