4th of July in Chat-town

Happily, friends and family from Philly, Dallas, Houston & Atlanta descended on Chattanooga for our second annual 4th of July get-together. (Last year we all flew to Mason and Bindu's in Hotlanta.) The Fourth has quickly become a holiday we look forward to all year. Roby and I were thrilled to have our peeps in town and this big, empty house definitely had some life breathed into it. We celebrated Joyce, Abbey and Roby's birthdays, partook of some local BBQ, enjoyed dinner at the charming Back Inn Cafe overlooking the Tennessee River, visited the Hunter art museum, went to an Outlooks' game, fired up Roby's new grill, watched Batman or War of the Worlds, witnessed amateur fireworks put on by our neighbors in our street & played some basketball in the million degree heat (well the guys anyway :) Sadly, one by one everyone departed for their respective cities...except Shan and Steve who stayed for an extra week! (hence my next entry)

Thanks to all of you for traveling to the Gateway to the South to visit us, your lonely California transplant friends. Tobi has already put the word out that he and Joyce want to host next year's festivities down in H-town, TX. Count us in! (and yes, Binoy, wherever you may end up in 2007, we are there too!)