Early Thursday afternoon, people gathered along the San Francisco waterfront to secure a spot to watch the massive fireworks display over the bay.
The Fourth of July festivities were in full swing at Pier 39, where hundreds of people gathered throughout the day to prepare for the fireworks display.
One of the best places to enjoy the festivities is Luau Lounge, where we met Jazmin and Melissa.
“Today is the Fourth of July! America! Go America!” said Jazmin and Melissa, who have been working at Luau Lounge for a few years. On Thursday, they wore their best party outfits to celebrate with customers.
“I think we’ll see the fireworks around 8 o’clock, so there’ll be a lot of people here. Like queuing, like in Fleet Week, when we had people standing here, next to the bar, just watching,” Jazmin added.
Among the enthusiastic customers is the Pinzón family, who came all the way from San Jose to continue the family tradition since they all became American citizens five years ago.
“We love this country and how people live and celebrate independence here. Everyone is very patriotic. That’s what we like the most!”, says Monica Pinzón.
The excitement doesn’t stop there. On the pier we met Myriam Jordan, who had traveled from Sacramento to celebrate with her family after fireworks there were canceled due to the fires.
“It’s going to be busy. It’s going to be fun. Lots of people. Fourth of July, it’s a memory. It’s history,” Myriam said.
There were also visitors from England, who were passing through the US and decided to attend the festivities in San Francisco after seeing in films how colorful the festivities around the 4th of July are.
“We had planned to be here for the 4th of July because we wanted to be in a big city. We knew there would be lots of fireworks and we would see things we had never seen before,” the British visitors said.
Now we wait for the moment as we make memories and celebrate the holiday in true American fashion.
