Celebrating Freedom Weekend and the 4th of July, we have a nice arrangement of red, white and blue flowers in the living room. I hope you enjoy this photo of our patriotic bouquet.
Update: I’m so proud that none other than Lorie Byrd liked this picture too! Thanks Lorie! Happy 4th of July!
p.s. Lorie also posted this on Wizbang!
Flag Day is a good time to change over to our patriotic Stars and Stripes theme for the blog. The new theme will also be appropriate for the Fourth of July and the summer season, so it will probably be here until Labor Day or so. Enjoy the new look.
Incidentally, the flag image in the background was taken aboard the SS Lane Victory, a WWII Merchant Marine Vessel, still in operation out of San Pedro, Los Angeles Harbor.
Taking to the skies to help celebrate Memorial Day, these beautiful vintage airplanes were just returning to home base at Zamperini Field in Torrance, CA (named for Louis Zamperini, living legend and WWII veteran — but that’s another blog post).
My aviator husband tells me that the aircraft were a mix of Stearman and Waco bi-planes — six alltogether — doing a pass over a local celebration, where they flew the “missing man” formation in honor of fallen military aviators. Even though we did not attend the celebration, we saw a parachute team circling down with a giant American Flag to open the ceremonies earlier in the day.
Damsel and I often speak of our visit to Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. On this day we recall the memories of that visit and the overwhelming sanctity of the tomb and the solemness of the soldiers guarding it. May the spirit of our fallen soldiers be remembered on this day.
I hope everyone in the USA and all Americans enjoy the weekend and Memorial Day holiday. We started out a day early and ran some errands before commencing our weekend. One stop today found us at the flower concession in the local supermarket where I snapped this photo of the beautiful, patriotic bouquets all ready for the weekend ahead.
And please remember that if you’re planning to travel over the weekend that this weekend is statistically one of the highest-fatality weekends, so please, drive carefully!
In March, we wrote about Tom Heidenberger’s memorial bike ride to honor the memory of the 33 flight crew members that were killed on 9/11/2001. Tom and his riders have now completed their journey.
Bike riders travel 3,800 miles to honor 33 victims of 9-11
The cyclists made the pilgrimage from Los Angeles to the three crash sites to raise money and awareness of the Sept. 11 memorials.
Thomas Heidenberger ended his cross-country bike ride this month the same way he started: asking himself what the heck he was thinking.
He knew, of course. He had done it for his wife, Michele, a flight attendant killed aboard a hijacked airplane on Sept. 11, 2001. He had done it for all 33 airline crew members killed that day.
The ride had taken him and four other riders from Los Angeles to a wind-swept field in Pennsylvania, a gaping hole in Manhattan, the scarred Pentagon in Washington. They did it to raise money and awareness for Sept. 11 memorials, and they dedicated each day of their ride to one of the crew members.
Image: Cyclists complete journey arriving at Pentagon.
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The Airline Ride Across America was supposed to raise $300,000 for the Sept. 11 memorials in Pennsylvania, New York and Washington. It has raised about a third of that so far, and Heidenberger hopes to raise the rest with his Web site, www.airlineride.org.
He’s working on a book about the ride, and talks about dividing it into 33 chapters, each with a short biography of one of the crew members killed on Sept. 11. He thinks he may call it Why I Rode My Bicycle for 3,800 Miles.
“It’s a good story, a happy story,” he said. “It’s a story about life continuing on.”
This is a very touching story where each day the riders dedicated their ride for that day to one of the 33 crew member victims. The last day’s ride was dedicated to Tom’s wife, Michelle, Read the whole story.
Celebrating Armed Forces Day is a long-standing tradition in Torrance, California. There are numerous events taking place throughout the day. There is a parade in the afternoon with military units, equipment, and bands, punctuated with flyovers of military aircraft at one point.
Later, there will be static displays of equipment at the local mall, and two concerts (free) by the U. S. Army Band. This year, Torrance high school students tied yellow ribbons around trees lining the parade route in recognition of our brave men and women serving throughout the world.
More images from the 2005 parade can be seen at this website.
Here’s an excerpt of an article from the local newspaper website:
Torrance to honor military with parade on Saturday
The 47th annual Armed Forces Day event singles out Army for special recognition. It’s the longest-running military-sanctioned parade in U.S.With its phalanx of tanks, jets and hundreds of military personnel, the invasion of Torrance is ready to begin. The annual Armed Forces Day Parade is once again hitting town Saturday.
After 47 years, the parade is an enduring tradition. And this year’s salute to the military will continue the custom.
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