Saturday is a special day,...

On Saturday, we were supposed to go to the Gaspee Day Parade. But, we woke up late, and it was a little cloudy out. The parade route is right by my parents' house. I have gone every year that I have lived in RI (just like the Gaspee Day Fair I mentioned in an earlier blog). I guess I should explain what Gaspee is. Well, this is the way the story goes. The British put a restriction on foreign shipping between them and their colonies in 1651. Anyway, the Gaspee was a British ship that was patrolling the Narragansett Bay. One day, it tried to stop a boat called the Hannah to search it. Well, the captain of the Hannah didn't want to stop. He also knew the waters much better than the British. So, he led the British in a chase. The Hannah was a smaller boat that had a flatter bottom that could handle shallow waters. He led the Gaspee over a sand bank and it got stuck and the Hannah got away. Later that night, a group of rebels snuck onto the Gaspee, looted it, and torched it. That's right British...take that. Anyway, that, my friends, is what actually started the American Revolution. Not the Boston Tea Party, it was the burning of the Gaspee. So what? They threw some tea bags into the ocean...woopty doo. We burned a freaking ship down.
Anyway, during the entire weekend, there are festivities going on celebrating that event. Friday night, (night before the parade) there are fireworks over the bay. Saturday is the parade and on Sunday, there is a reenactment of the burning of the Gaspee at Pawtuxet Village. There is a Gaspee Day committee where they not only organize the events, but they have people dress up, set up tents in the park, shoot cannons and stuff, and burn a little boat down in the middle of the bay. I am sad to say, that I did not get to participate in any of these festivities this year (besides the fair). I'm not being a very good Rhode Islander, I know. Well, enough History lessons for one blog!

On Saturday night we went up to Beacon Hill in downtown Boston to surprise one of my best friends from high school. Fran is currently living in New Orleans until August. She is an assistant producer on movies. She usually works out of NYC but this movie moved production down to New Orleans where they are filming. She has been there since September or so (I can't remember now). She's working on the movie Green Lantern with Ryan Reynolds...hubba hubba! Anyway, she flew into Boston Saturday afternoon so that she could participate in a charity walk on Sunday morning in memory of her younger sister who passed a year ago. Then, Sunday night she headed back to New Orleans. Fran's friend from Fordham University, who was also participating in the walk, set up the surprise get-together for her. We met at her apartment on Beacon Hill along with one of mine and Fran's other friend from high school. She got to the apartment and we surprised her! She was really really surprised! Then we went to dinner at Avila Restaurant. Fran's sister and her sister's fiance surprised her at the restaurant. It was a fun night hanging out together! We also had the argument about the Burning of the Gaspee being the actual start of the War, not the Boston Tea Party. Melina (Fran's sister), her fiance is from Massachusetts and people from Mass like to dispute that fact. So, we had Shaun, Tim (one of Fran's other friends attending the walk) and Chad (Melina's fiance) arguing with me, Fran, Melina, and Katie (our friend from high school) about that. The other two girls are from Long Island, so they didn't care either way. It was a very funny argument. Overall, it was a good night. We didn't get back to our car until 11:30...and we still had a 45 minute drive home. As a side note, I just have to say, the town homes on Beacon Hill are AMAZING. Shaun and I peeked into the windows of a few...ok, not Shaun, just me. I told Shaun that we are sooo moving to the city and buying one. Ah...one day.