Grilling at the beach

It's the Fourth of July, so we must obey the traditions.

I listened to Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers sing one of my favorite songs of his, "Fourth of July."  I do love that one.

We grilled burgers and dogs because, America.  Being at the beach, though, I had to resort to charcoal.

Click an image to see a larger version.

I might have over-filled the Weber with charcoal because, damn, it was hot, hot enough to take off hand hair.

The burgers just fit

and turned out delicious but with a bit too much carbon; that was totally my fault. Yeah, that's 18 burgers on that grill.

Later, Kyle split a hot dog and added pimento cheese and bacon.

Oh, heck, yeah, that looked good.

Some even went to the grill much later and made s'mores.

I did not, but they're not a dessert I enjoy. Others did seem to like them.

On a serious note, our country is the most divided it's been in my life. Each side in the great political debate spends all of its time attacking the other side and nearly none of its time listening to those other viewpoints. This saddens me, because down this road, nothing good happens.

So, my wish for our country on its birthday is that we all pause to realize that we have more in common than not, that we are all Americans, and that if we can all come together to find solutions to our toughest problems, we can indeed remain a nation united.