Celebrating July 4th in Brazil looking at Beach Art

"Two of the greatest gifts we can give our children are roots and wings." -- Hodding Carter

Today on the 4th of July, we walked along the beach from Leblon to Ipamena and admired the Beach Art. It is amazing to see what beautiful works of art can be made with sand! One sand sculpture in particular impressed me with its sheer complexity and political and social messages. We actually found a good place to have a great hamburger in Rio (the closest we could come to a July 4th barbecue). We then walked back to the hotel in Vidigal (a pretty long but enjoyable walk) and stopped along the way at a park because Ashley wanted to play on the swings. We started talking to a family from the city of Manaus (on the Amazon). They had a little daughter who was the same age as Ashley and the most interesting coincidence was that Ashley's birthday is October 2nd and their daughter's is October 1st, the father's birthday is February 8th and my mother's is February 7th and the mother's birthday is June 5th and Aracelis' is June 6th. This was a bit incredible and perhaps some of you more up on astrological matters can inform me as to what, if any, significance this has. That being said, the girls had a good time playing in the park, where we stayed until sundown. HAPPY JULY 4TH AND GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!

A very beautiful and complex sand sculpture

Ashley admiring her favorite work of sand art

My July 4th burger in Brazil (probably as good as yours)!

When the Brazilians start making club sandwiches like this, it gets harder and harder  to want to go home

Ashley and Jordana in the park

The girls played until sundown