Happy Birthday, America!

 July 4

Magic Kingdom was opening at 8 am, so we got up and got going early. It was well worth it to get to the parks early on one of the busiest days of the year. (In fact, we found out that the Magic Kingdom closed due to maximum capacity on July 3rd). 

We had several things we wanted to do today.  Kim wanted to get one last ride on Splash Mountain, and we all wanted to see the Hall of Presidents, since that seemed to be a patriotic thing to do on July 4.  We were able to walk right on to both Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain, which we thought was fantastic on July 4.  Kim and Gary wanted to do Country Bears, but Dave and I had no interest in that, so we said that we would meet them at the front of the park.  As we were leaving, masses of humanity were streaming in!

After that, we hopped on the monorail for a quick trip over to Epcot.  Epcot is the largest park, so it seemed less crowded, but it got more and more congested as the day went on.  In Epcot, we went to the America Garden Theatre to hear the Voices of Liberty sing a Fourth of July concert.  They did Proud to be an American, Battle Hymn of the Republic, the National Anthem and several other patriotic songs.  They were an a cappella group and they were just incredible!  (You can see some video of them on my Facebook page).  They were followed by the Fife and Drum corps, led in by Mickey, Donald and Goofy.  It was a really great concert.

We went back to the Beach Club for a swim, rest and shower and headed back out to Epcot.  We got supper at the Mexican pavilion and then Kim and Gary went to listen to the British Revolution (a band in the UK pavilion) while Dave and I went to ride on Spaceship Earth (the “giant golf ball”) and Living with the Land.  After our ride, we got something to drink and a little dessert (Dave had carrot cake and I had pineapple upside-down cake).  Then we went to stake out a spot for the fireworks.  All the benches were taken, but we found spots on the steps near the Italy pavilion.  We waited two and a half hours for the show, but the people watching was great and the time passed fairly quickly.  (An example of great people watching?  A conservative Muslim woman, her headscarf topped with black sequined Mickey Mouse ears!) 

The fireworks show was absolutely stunning.  The special salute at the end was spectacular.  There were so many shells going off you could feel the pressure wave!

After that, we walked home.  It was so nice to just have a few minutes walk to our hotel and not have to fight to get on busses!