Spirit of Liberty Festival

Each year the town of Patterson holds a Spirit of Liberty Festival on the weekend before the Fourth of July. The kids and I went last year to see the Swinging Medallions, and we had a great time. So, we went back again this year and we participated in more of the activities offered at the festival. On Friday night, the Swinging Medallions played. The kids liked listening to the beach music as much this year as they did last year. Olivia got out in the street and danced. That was entertaining. We sat next to Mr. and Mrs. Murray, and they offered the kids some boiled peanuts. Owen and Olivia love boiled peanuts and they devoured a ton of them. I actually felt bad- like my kids were eating too many. But, Mrs. Shirley said that they were fine, so they kept on eating.

When the band took a break, we walked over to the vendor area. There were people selling all types of "festival" stuff. There were also several things (like bouncy houses, petting zoo, etc) set up for the kids to do- for a fee, of course. I told the kids that they could do one of the activities. They chose to do the bungee trampoline. They really liked this because they were able to bounce really high. They also got to pick one souvenir each. They both chose a balloon creature (one of which was punctured before we even left the festival- resulting in a crying kid on the way home).

We returned to the festival on Saturday morning to participate in the Spirit of Liberty 5K (details to come later), and then we went back again on Saturday night to watch the fireworks. In the past we have gone to Waycross to see the fireworks, but I really prefer the way things were done in Patterson. In Patterson, they had another band playing on Saturday night. We took our lawn chairs out into the middle of a large grassy area and staked out a spot where we could see the band well. I brought a cooler with some Capri Suns and a tub of popcorn in it. We sat around eating and listening to the band for a little while. My dad was there (surprise) and he came over and sat with us. At 9:30, the lights were turned off and the fireworks began. It was a pretty good show, and we were right there in the middle of the action. It was so nice and laid back.