Get your liberty on!

To celebrate the Fourth of July we went over to Cedar Key today for their big CLAMERICA festival. Not that we're great clam lovers necessarily, but it's one of their big local events, it has fun stuff for kids to do, and, like we said before, we fear all those areas along the gulf are soon going to be very different, so we want to enjoy them - and the girls to enjoy them - while we can.

So we donned our red white and blue and headed out. Or, as Harvey illustrates, we got our liberty on. 

(And you'll notice he's not wearing any red. But don't worry, by the end of the afternoon the top of his head was sunburned enough to be considered red.)

The "downtown" proper area of Cedar Key isn't that big, but there are some restaurants and shops and there's a beach area,

with a nice park too. This is where they had everything set up. There were activities for the kids, from educational exhibits about the clam industry to games and clam races with prizes. In spite of all the special fun stuff, though, I'd say the plain old playground swings won out for best entertainment.

There were also the SnoKones, a first for Resli and Lela, which were a huge hit. 

 

But judging by the mess they made, and the odd looks I got from Lela which I'm assuming were a result of her first head-freeze, we may not do that again for a while.

Since we had explained the whole concept of Independence Day to the girls as "America's Birthday," they had been wondering all day where the cake was at this big outdoor party. So, to humor them, we surprised them after dinner with a birthday cake. (And kudos to our server, who played along like a true sport.) 

It was pretty cool, they actually sang Happy Birthday and Resli filled in "to our country" at the end of every line. It got quite a few smiles around the restaurant, too.

All in all, another great day down here. Happy fourth of July to you all, we hope you all got your liberty on!