Thursday, July 5, 2012

Independence Day in Photos

I've been trying to write about my Independence Day activities all day long and really, I'm struggling. Not because it was boring or excessively magical but...oh this funk that I am in. Curse it all! So I'll just give a brief photo essay.

I wanted to beat the traffic and get a good parking spot, so the girls and I headed down town around 1pm.

I brought the girls on an actual tour of Flagler. Both of them want to go here and I am encouraging that whole-heartedly. I love the idea of my girls going to my Alma mater as well as something local. Here's a snapshot of the front entrance. I've got more photos to come on Friday.

After the tour we headed over to the playground for a bit before headed back to the Plaza to catch a concert. Big band sounds with tons of patriotic music. Listening to Cyra sing along to Proud to Be An American made me tear up just a bit.
It was nice to lay back on our picnic blanket and stare up into the sky. So very relaxing and peaceful despite all of the hustle and bustle going on around the Plaza.
Then around seven we decided to find a place to nosh! The main roads were quite crowded and our favorite pizza place had a line out the door so we wandered the back streets until we stumbled upon a tiny little British pub, The Prince of Wales.

We stood in the street looking over the menu for a minute before we decided to head in.

"You know, this seems a bit...dodgy." I said to Ashleigh.

"What do you mean?"

"Eating at a British pub on the Fourth of July?" I replied. "Isn't that a bit, you know, wrong?"

Ashleigh giggled a bit.

"Well," I continued, "If I had been around back then, I probably would have been a loyalist. I like tea too much and I don't like to rock the boat."


The dessert menu. Guess which one we ordered?


I'd never had it before and I giggled the whole way through eating it. Cyra wasn't to partial to it but Ashleigh devoured her share!


After dinner, uncomfortably full, we headed over the lawn of the Fort to find a place to sit. The crowd was...more than I expected but not too bad all things considered.

Out of all the photos I took of the fireworks, this one came out the best and it is by far my favorite. You can clearly see the outline of the Fort as well as the nearly full moon peeking out from behind one of the towers. A beautiful finale.


I won't go into details about the drive home. It is sufficient enough to say that the fireworks were over at 10, we got to car about 10:15 and we pulled into the driveway just about midnight.

11 comments:

  1. I've driven from downtown St. Augustine to my apartment on the island after 4th of July fireworks. I totally empathize. Sounds like a decent way to spend the holiday! And now I'm just missing you and St. Augustine. Hope to see you in about a week!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a pretty good day all told and the girls had fun so that's a win. Looking forward to your return to the South!

      Delete
  2. A British pub on the 4th of July, how rebellious of you! Rebelling against rebellion? Ow, my head hurts from the twisted logic.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Totally twisted! It's funny but I really am not a rebel!

      Delete
  3. I tip my hat to you!!! British pub? 4th of July! You are BADASS! I know what I'm gonna do next year! :oD

    Hugs!

    Valerie

    ReplyDelete
  4. That's a very cool image of the fireworks. Good shot.

    Every year, I swear I am going to buy a gyro-copter to get me and my gal out of fireworks traffic.

    But now that we are living in Manila teaching and writing, there are firework shows often and we can generally see them wherever we are.

    sadly, they cannot match the splendor of shows in the USA, especially when choreographed with cool music.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Interestingly enough the music really didn't suit this year. It was hard to hear and more "pop" than patriotic!

      Delete
  5. Sounds like a lovely day. And I liked that you used an English term, to say that the English pub was a bad idea. That made me laugh. Gorgeous firework photo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ashleigh and I decided that we should have been British and will incorporate as much British slang into our vocabulary as possible.

      Delete
  6. This is an amazing photo and I love that you captured the full moon along with the fort & fireworks. This is the first year of living here that we did not go to the fort. I just could not bring myself to brave the traffic. You are very courageous. I did watch the fireworks from the beach and we actually could see them. The best part was that moon - I couldn't get over how awesome it was. Sounds like a great 4th of July!

    ReplyDelete