Independence Day

As families and friends gathered all over the United States last weekend to celebrate the country's Independence, I celebrated with a few Americans at a bar in New Zealand. 

Auckland is a small big city and given enough time you can usually find a few degrees of separation between anyone here.  Little communities crop up, often brought together by ties to home.  So on the 4th of July it wasn't difficult to find a group of Americans that wanted to go out and celebrate our country.  Fortunately, there was a bar that was prepared for our antics and even offered hot dogs, chili dogs, and specials on Budweiser for the American contingent that wanted to celebrate.  The hot dogs weren't anything like the kind from home, we didn't have a magnificent fireworks display, and it was expensive Budweiser even on special, but in the end I had exactly what I wanted:

Country music playing on the speakers, ESPN baseball highlights on the tvs, cold American beer (brewed in St. Louis, Missouri), hot dogs, and friends sitting around sharing stories of our families, friends and adventures.  A few thousand miles from home, this year we were celebrating more than our country's independence, we were celebrating our own too.