Hi, N Q - We live out in the country and it is several hours' drive to the beach. I grew up a little closer to it than where I landed as an adult! Daughter in her early twenties, so we are delighted that she likes to spend time with us on occasion, still!

Homely how close to the beach do you live ? in my mind I saw you as living up in the woods.It does sound like a lovely time, spending the day on the beach celebrating your daughter's birthday, how old is she ?

N Q, it was indeed due to the smoke. We had several days of it here before finally getting it cleared out. I felt terrible for folks who have breathing issues. We went to the beach for our daughter's birthday and I'd gotten a permit to have a bonfire... got a notice that afternoon that we may want to reschedule. I thought, "heck no!" Apparently, everyone else had the same thought, because once it got darked the whole beach was dotted with firelight as far as the eye could see!

Homely your air quality alert is probably from the smoke, I have a friend in CT who stated it hit her area yesterday. Our air quality index is in the 900s today, it's really bad, but those in Northern Minn have stated that they can't see 20 feet in front of them !

Wow, that's crazy heavy. I only started hearing about the fires yesterday. We are still in the midst of very high heat, so I'm not sure if our Red Alert for air quality tomorrow is from that or the smoke finally making its way this far down.

We're getting some of the same heavy smoke from the Ontario fires and the northern Minn fires, it's so thick that I can barely see one block up the street from me.