Independence Day

The Fourth of July is one of our favorite holidays. We have been lucky to live in some excellent cities for the 4th, including four years Philadelphia and Washington DC. Provo, UT also knows how to celebrate our nation's birthday, and we've always enjoyed being there.

This year, we got a flavor for Independence Day in San Antonio. Texans are generally very proud of their country and, on top of that, San Antonio is a 'military town' in many ways. There were countless things to do and we sampled a few of them this time around.

Here are a few pictures of the kids at the beginning of our day:





Many of the military bases around town open their gates to the public for various ceremonies, concerts, and firework shows. We decided to attend the "Salute to the Union" at Fort Sam Houston, near downtown. Fort Sam is one of the oldest Army bases in the country, and the historical buildings there are fascinating. The ceremony at the main parade ground was short and sweet, but included a flag ceremony, military band, some remarks, old men dressed up as George Washington, and a 50-shot cannon salute to each of the 50 states. I felt sorry for the band sitting in full fatigues, but they were great. The boys and Tori were not thrilled with the cannons, especially since we were only about 30 yards away from them, but by the time we got back to the car they had decided that the cannons were "cool."

Here is a video of a few cannon shots:


And a picture of the boys with the ordnance guys:

A shot of the military band in their fatigues--even the piccolo player!

Joey (born in Olney) found his Maryland flag.

We then followed the old men dressed up as George Washington, who turned out to be members of the Sons of the American Revolution who were dressed in authentic uniforms from the Continental Army.

Here is a picture of the boys with them:

The boys couldn't take their eyes off of them, especially the guy carrying around the large copy of the Declaration of the Independence and a quill. The boys were excited to actually read the part that we always recite (we hold these truths to be self-evident...), even though Charles was confused about the s's looking like f's.

Anyway, we followed the SAR guys downtown to the Alamo where another ceremony took place, with another band, in front of the shrine (the old church with the well-known facade). They rang the bell for the 13 original states and played a lot of great Souza pieces (with a very random "Rock Around the Clock" thrown in there, probably just to see if we were paying attention). We hung out at the Alamo for a bit, spent some time on the Riverwalk, grabbed some lunch, got caught in a huge downpour, stopped by Central Market in Alamo Heights (which by the way, has the best selection of Spanish cheese outside of Spain I've ever seen--but if you're looking for pickled eggs, you're out of luck), and got home a few hours before our church ice-cream social and firework viewing.

We took the kids over to the church lawn, which sits on a hill, where we could see the Sonterra firework show. The boys enjoyed their SECOND serving of ice cream in one day and we enjoyed a pretty good firework show without it being too loud for the kids. It started raining just as the fireworks ended and we made it home without getting soaked. We and our lawn are happy to finally see some significant rain.

Of course, it was a great day--but any day that we live in this country is great. The older I get the more I appreciate how uniquely blessed we are to live here, the more grateful I am to those who sacrifice for our freedom, and the more honored I am to be able to teach my children and watch them learn to love their country. I love my country. God Bless America.