JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Beaches across Jacksonville were filled with red, white and blue as thousands of people gathered to celebrate the nation\u2019s 250th birthday, with many arriving hours before sunset to secure the perfect spot for the fireworks. <\/p>\n
From tents and umbrellas lining the sand to chants of \u201cU-S-A!\u201d echoing across neighborhoods to the shoreline, patriotic pride was on full display throughout the day. <\/p>\n
For many families, spending the Fourth of July at the beach is an annual tradition centered around food, swimming and quality time before fireworks light up the sky. <\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always been a tradition for us to get a bunch of stuff, come to the beach, hang out, and then we normally hit the beach bars or walk around after we\u2019re done,\u201d Jacksonville resident Annie Shac said. <\/p>\n Experienced beachgoers said arriving early is part of the game. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to be so crowded down here, so we make sure we get here early, set up early, and then we don\u2019t have to worry about trying to find parking later because you\u2019re not parking out there after 10 or 11,\u201d retired military veteran Ronald Remillard said. <\/p>\n For Larissa McCall, the holiday carries an even deeper meaning. <\/p>\n After moving to the United States from Russia, McCall said celebrating Independence Day reminds her of the opportunities she\u2019s found and the life she\u2019s built in America. As she rode her bike along the beach with hundreds of other celebrants, she reflected on how far she\u2019s come. <\/p>\n \u201cI mean, this was never in my wildest imagination to live at the beach,\u201d McCall said. \u201cI\u2019m living that dream. I own my own business, and this is all thanks to America.\u201d <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n Whether celebrating lifelong traditions or new beginnings, many people at the beach said the Fourth of July is about appreciating the freedoms they enjoy and spending time with the people who matter most. <\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what the Fourth is about, family, friends gathering together for the freedom that everyone enjoys,\u201d Remillard said. <\/p>\n As crowds continued to grow ahead of the fireworks, beachgoers also had one message for everyone heading out to celebrate: stay safe and make good choices. <\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Beaches across Jacksonville were filled with red, white and blue as thousands of people gathered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329878,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[134603,982,3017,794,969,116,118,117,6489,136316,634,5767,13822,1617],"class_list":["post-329877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-4th","tag-action_news","tag-america","tag-duval","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jessica_salinas","tag-larissa_mccall","tag-local","tag-russia","tag-united_states","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}