Entertaining: The New Old-Fashioned Fourth

Eating hot dogs on street curbs lined with families in anticipation of a parade. Shorts-clad legs churning as they circle the bases during a spirited game of stickball at the local park. Neighborhood kids running outside to catch the first explosion of fireworks in the sky. There’s something about moments like these during an old-fashioned, small-town Fourth of July celebration that makes me feel like a kid again, and few places capture this nostalgia the way the town of Seabrook does.

A quaint new seaside development near Pacific Beach (about a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Seattle), Seabrook oozes small-town charm. Here, a community of beach bungalows takes you back to the time of front-porch conversations with your neighbors; a weathered lemonade stand sits on the side of a picket-fence-lined street, children spy tadpoles in the creek and campfire s’mores are a dietary staple.

Families are at the heart of Seabrook’s annual Fourth of July celebration, from a community parade that marches down the picture-perfect streets to the town’s special twist on the fireworks show. Instead of setting off fireworks, which are a fire hazard and prohibited in this wooded area, neighbors compete for the best Fourth of July porch-lighting decorations. Porches are clad in patriotic red, white and blue, and at dusk, thousands of light strings are switched on during an illumination ceremony that lights up the night sky. 

My husband, Brent, and I spent the weekend entertaining with Seabrook developer Casey Roloff, his wife, Laura, and their extended family. To join in the fun, I hung red and white lanterns to festively light up the porch, an easy tradition to start at your own home this year (especially if you never took down those holiday lights). I added my own modern, chic touches to the town’s natural charms to produce a Fourth of July celebration that is both contemporary and nostalgic.



Seabrook: A Town In The Making
When 36-year-old Casey Roloff lived on the Oregon coast a few years ago, he was always amazed at the number of Washingtonians coming to Cannon Beach to vacation because, as they told it, there was no place similar on the Washington coast. The developer, who already had success planning the coastal neighborhood Bella Beach by Lincoln Park, Oregon, made the trip north to rectify this dilemma, scouting out a parcel for the Seabrook community near Pacific Beach in 2001. Nestled up the bluff from the sandy beach, Seabrook homes, which are available to buy or to rent (seabrookwa.com), are designed in the classic beach bungalow style, with large porches and shingled siding. But for Roloff, perhaps more important than the throwback architecture is the sense of community at the development, which is still a work in progress. He’s designing public spaces—such as the new Lil’s Pantry grocery and the proposed town center with retail shops, art galleries and eateries—within a five-minute walk of homes to promote interaction among residents as they make their way through town. Neighbors gather around communal fire pits, share bicycles, and play shuffleboard and horseshoes. And get ready, kiddies: More amenities are to come, including an indoor community pool to debut sometime in summer 2010.



DIY Project!
Ordinary cylindrical glass hurricane vases are transformed into festive lighting with just a few pieces of red, white and blue paper. To assemble, wrap each sheet of paper around the circumference of the vase, cutting any excess paper. Tape one end of the sheet to the glass to affix it, wrap it around so that the ends meet, and tape. Layer with as many colors as you want. After the Fourth, keep the vases and re-create the effect with different patterned papers for any holiday or get-together.

Reporting by Kate Calamusa