The Hendricks Family Experience

Our favorite

Happy Fourth of July! Here’s a picture of the fireworks we saw over in Cornwall.

The kids had a fun day – we drove over to Cornwall in the early afternoon to see what they had going on. There were some stalls set up selling cheesy stuff as well as carnival food (you know, fried dough, hot dogs, kettle corn, that kind of thing). Not real exciting, and the weather wasn’t too hot. So we took off and went to see some history.

First we drove up to Knox’s Headquarters in New Windsor. Generals Knox and Greene both were camped here from 1779-1782 during the Revolutionary War. We saw actual stuff from that time period and a tour of the house, quite a bit of which was original. We also got to see a period mortar being fired. Pretty cool.

Next stop was the National Purple Heart Hall of Honor and the New Windsor Cantonment (also in New Windsor, curiously enough). The New Windsor Cantonment is where big parts of the Continental Army were garrisoned during the Revolutionary War, from about 1779 until the end of the war. This is where George Washington gave his speech to the troops to stop the Newburgh Conspiracy. They had a lot of stuff to see, from a blacksmith to old toys to a large display of Revolutionary War cannons, including many captured from the British. It was fun to see history that we have read about. The Purple Heart Hall of Honor is pretty new, just opened last year. It gives a lot of information about the history behind the Purple Heart (including a real one given out by George Washington himself). Pretty amazing stuff.

Then we went home to grill up some hamburgers and eat watermelon and stuff, just in keeping with normal 4th of July celebrations.

Our last trip out included a stop at Weir’s for ice cream and then lastly, to the fireworks. It was a good show for a little town like Cornwall. Sarah and Allie liked it a lot, but Kate was not as excited. She buried her head in Steph’s chest and wouldn’t even look at them – but she didn’t cry. I guess she didn’t remember last year. The best part was we found a way to avoid the crowds and were home in 15 minutes!

All in all, a good 4th of July. The girls liked it and will certainly remember it for years to come. Oh yeah, and it didn’t rain.

We will post more photos of the fireworks up on our Flickr page! Click here to visit the photos.