Apartment Blog

Most people in the United States celebrate July 4^th with barbeques and fun in the sun with friends & family. But do you really know why the holiday is so important to our country? I read a terrific description on Kaboose that really breaks it down for kids and adults to understand the significance of this Saturday. Take a look…

Imagine how you would feel if someone older than you (maybe an older sister or brother) kept telling you what to do all of the time and kept taking more and more of your allowance. That is how the colonists felt in the years leading up to 1776. Great Britain kept trying to make the colonists follow more rules and pay higher taxes. People started getting mad and began making plans to be able to make their own rules. They no longer wanted Great Britain to be able to tell them what to do, so they decided to tell Great Britain that they were becoming an independent country.

The Congress met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and they appointed a committee to write a formal document that would tell Great Britain that the Americans had decided to govern themselves. The committee asked Thomas Jefferson to write a draft of the document which was officially adopted the on July 4, 1776 after some changes were made. That is why it is called “Independence Day.” Congress ordered that all members must sign the Declaration of Independence and they all began signing the “official” copy on August 2, 1776.

As you may know, the Declaration of Independence is more than just a piece of paper. It is a symbol of our country’s independence and commitment to certain ideas. The signers of the Declaration of Independence wanted the citizens of the United States to be able to look at the document and immediately think of the goals we should always be working for, and about the people who have fought so hard to make these ideas possible. The people who signed the Declaration risked being hanged for treason by the leaders in Great Britain. They had to be very brave to sign something that would be considered a crime!

So every time we look at the Declaration of Independence, we should think about all of the effort and ideas that went into the document, and about the courage it took for these people to stand up for what they knew was right — independence!

On this Fourth of July, it is important for you to remember those people as well as the people who are still to this day fighting for our right to be independent; for our rights of freedom.  And that is largely done by our military countrymen. 

Memorial Day weekend is the official kick-off weekend for the summer!  It’s definitely the traveling weekend for the beach and any other hot vacation spots. 

I’m not actually going to the beach, but the country.  I LOVE the country.  My cousin and her husband recently relocated to Greensboro, NC.  It’s interesting because although they live in the country, they’re still close to civilization, the city I mean.

Let me start with the drive.  A lot of people get head starts on their travel because EVERYONE is on the road.  BUT, the drive from Portsmouth, VA to Greensboro, NC is a calm, peaceful one.  For one, the only interstate, if that’s what you want to call it, to take in VA is 58 and there’s never any traffic.  It’s just a nice drive through the countryside.  Of course once you get into Carolina you’re on actual highway, but it’s still not congested.

There’s plenty to do in the TRIAD area.  During the day I’ll probably catch a minor league baseball game. Since the Greensboro Grasshoppers have away games the entire weekend we’ll roll down the way to a Winston-Salem Dash game.  And I can’t go on vacation without shopping.  The actual city part has plenty of shopping, outlets and indoor malls alike.

And there’s some good sight seeing.  Greensboro holds a lot of history.  It’s nice to just be able to drive around and take all of the scenery in.  It’s so pretty, fields of green, houses separated by almost a mile, farms, cows, horses, I could go on…

Of course we can’t forget the nightlife.  The general consensus is that Greensboro doesn’t have much nightlife.  Now if you’re in to going to upscale clubs, then no, Greensboro is NOT for you.  But I like the fact that EVERYONE is so down to earth and so friendly.  We just hit up the nearby bars and chat it up with the locals.  People treat you like family and you can’t get that up north.

Well, I hope everyone has as good a Memorial Day weekend as I’m going to have.