The biggest boat

Initially, I was worried we wouldn't get to see the bridge in action at all. Luckily, we caught it going up and down multiple times during the day. This was the most exciting. We were walking back to the car and the bridge went up. Way, way up.

Of course, we needed to see what was coming. Or John did at least. The rest of us were not as captivated by this point. It really was very impressive. The bridge went way, way up and let through this giant barge.
It was so big, it was unbelievable.

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On the trek back to the car, we walked quite a distance along the lake front. We had been walking most of the morning and I was tired. The kids were tired and starting to squabble. Someone drove by with their windows down and music blasting. The 80's tune "Girls just Wanna Have Fun" was playing. All of a sudden, Gemma was dancing. She dropped my hand on the and stopped walking in order to focus all her attention on the dance. She threw her hands in the air and kicked her leg out to one side.

"Mom!!! Listen!!! It is a party! You need to dance!! she yelled at me.

So pronounced was her reaction, the people in the car slowed down to yell out that they thought she was pretty awesome. They danced for a heartbeat with her from the car window before moving on.

At the same time, there were other pedestrians walking the sidewalks coming towards us from another direction.

When Gemma's dance party started, they were just about even with us and had to stop and wait as Gemma's dance party took up the width of the sidewalk. The people on the sidewalk took it in stride and as I hustled her slightly to the side to make room, the boogied on by.

"You can't NOT dance at a dance party!" they laughed as they were finally able to pass us.

And just like that the dance party was over and everything went back to normal. Except for my face because it had a huge smile. These kids. These kids bring joy in ways you could never have predicted and at the times you least expect it.