fourth of july celebration

I've always enjoyed the Fourth of July. As a child, we spent nearly every 4th of July at Fondulac Park in East Peoria. The land in between softball field was transformed into a patriotic celebration. Funded mostly by the Jaycees and Knights of Columbus, this event drew most of East Peoria -- or at least it seemed that way to a young kid.

Once during my high school years, we went to Pekin rather than Fondulac Park. To this day, I'm not sure why. It's not that Pekin was very far away; it was less than 15 minutes away. But it wasn't East Peoria or Fondulac Park. They didn't have the dunk tank or vendors selling hot dogs.

Yesterday we spent the morning hours hitting the free museums at Balboa Park -- the Natural History Museum and the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center. It's truly a gift that different museums are free every Tuesday.

Later in the day we connected with some fellow LifePointers and headed south to Chula Vista and Coors Ampitheate. A number of local churches were sponsoring fireworks and a free concert by Kirk Franklin and P.O.D. Not necessarily my musical genres of choice, but the event was well-attended and well done. The fireworks were actually pretty impressive.

So ... I hope you enjoyed your 4th of July as much as we did!