Tuesday, August 31 was Independence Day for Trinidad. Trinidad and Tobago gained its independence from Great Britain on August 31st, 1962. The first Independence Day was marked by more than a week of festivities and events across the country from August 28 to September 05, 1962. Today they celebrate with military-style parades held at the Queens Park Savannah, Port of Spain and a fantastic Fireworks display. Thousands of people gathered from early in the evening to get a strategic vantage point to view these shows and Carl and I were among them.

We were picked up by Jessie of Member's Only Taxi Service and taken into Port of Spain where we walked through some of the park and even tried some homemade corn soup brewing in a giant kettle along the sidewalk. Personally, I was hoping for Doubles but a-las I found none. Jessie gave us a lesson on Trinidad History (Glad there wasn't a test afterwards) and a good time was had by all. The Fireworks didn't begin until 9:00 and lasted about thirty minutes. Afterward, we all ran back to the van to try to beat traffic and Jessie rewarded us with a scoup of Ice Cream for our efforts.