The Fourth of July

I got a note the other day from our friend Jill in Indianapolis. She wanted to say hi, see how we were doing and let us know that they were headed to the annual Dave Matthews Band concert this weekend. Joe and I have gone with Matt and Jill to see Dave Matthews for the past 4 years. It made me a little sentimental, thinking of driving through the cornfields to get to Verizon Music center, and then enjoying a night of music, Bud Light and macaroni salad. Oh yes, and music!

Anyways, it reminded me that I needed to post about our Fourth of July. We met up with an old church friend of Joe's - Mary and her husband Steve. They had a cookout at their apartment, then we all went to Kadena Air Base for AmericaFest! This was basically a large street fair (with airplanes on display) on the flight line.













I was reminded to post, because the main act for that night was Gary Sinise's Lt. Dan Band. They were a pretty good cover band! It was fun to see a "movie star" over in Okinawa on the Fourth.














Joe and I had wanted to arrive a little earlier at AmericaFest (but when you have no car, you are thankful people will take you anywhere!) to see American Idol season star, Melinda Doolittle. Well, Joe saw her dancing on the side of the stage while we were watching the Lt. Dan Band play --- and thank goodness I married someone more outgoing than me......















Joe definately encouraged me to go meet her!
























It was WAY COOL! She was very kind and (very petite). She was also very thoughtful to thank both of us for our service -- which was kind of funny, because we had only been there three days!

The evening ended, of course, with fireworks.