I have always loved the July 4th celebrations. My family would always be all together, usually 20 or so of us all swimming and grilling up burgers and hot dogs. When we were kids my Father would drive us up to the local fireworks and we would sit on the hood of the car and watch from the parking lot of the industrial park. When I was in high school and college my friends and I would drive a bit further to Camden to sit at the waterfront and watch the Philadelphia  fireworks from across the river. Last year my Sister and I drove around to all the local towns looking for a good spot and settled upon the Haddonfield fireworks which we watched from a small parking lot off the beaten path. It was perfect sitting there with the crickets chirping and the smell of grass and gunpowder all around. This year however, with the holiday falling on Wednesday, I couldn't make it down to NJ until the weekend and I was truly sad to miss that yearly tradition. Luckily my friend was having a dinner party that evening and everyone was going up to his roof to watch the New York City fireworks from his roof. It was a terrific spread and about as down home as you can get with lobster rolls and home made cole slaw.

Not to mention strawberry shortcake for dessert!

It had been years since I stayed in town for the 4th and I admit I was skeptical about our view from the roof. There are always so many tall buildings between you and the river! Was I surprised and delighted to find that after our climb up the fire escape to his roof (no small feat in heels with a cocktail in my belly) we had the most perfect view of the Hudson River. The buildings were perfectly placed with spaces in between for the best show I could have imagined! Yes I missed the smell of gunpowder and seeing them from a distance isn't quite the same as having them explode over head but boy were they grand and just so beautiful! Here are some selected photos...

We also had this great view of the Empire State Building...

We also had a view of the Freedom Tower to the south (the center building with the blue lights) in progress. I heard that it reached the height of the Empire State Building last week.