If you were lucky you had today off on Friday, we found a lot of people taking advantage of the nice weather and the long holiday weekend.

Some folks who were out got an early start on their celebrations they say the 4th of July means food, friends and of course fireworks.

Mary from Eau Claire says, "We are having a huge gathering at our house."

For a lot of us, it also meant getting an early start to the holiday weekend. We found a lot of folks taking advantage of their day off. Like Storm Ashley who says, "Going out tubbin' for a little bit, it's a nice day out."

There were even some people using the day off to forget about their daily troubles.

Mary, says, "We are using this as a holiday understanding that we are so busy with everything it's nice to just gather and relax, laugh, eat...."

Paul Gurgel says, "Well were going to go do a little boating."

While some people were already out enjoying the water, others were making sure they had all the grilling essentials and most seemed happy about the time off.

Storm says, "Means you don't have to work."
Gurgel says, "…time off, with pay."

Some people say this long weekend is special because of the extra time off, but, others say it's special for another reason.

Kaari Lahner says, "It represents the freedom of our country, we have a friend over there right now who is fighting for freedom for Iraq so we are going to remember him and remember why our flag is waiving."

While some people didn't have the day off, Doug Wallner says, "No got to go into work later and then I have the whole weekend off."

Many of them have made individual plans to celebrate the countries birthday, in their own way.

Kaari says, "I think we are going to hit to the Express game up at Carson Park then stay for the fireworks. Then go home and light some of our own.

Doug Wallner says, "I'm going to be going to Milwaukee to Summer Fest."

Storm Ashley says he’s, "Going out on Lake Wissota watch the fireworks."

It's been 233 years since the U.S.A. declared its independence from England, and while we're now allies with the queen, we still enjoy getting out and celebrating our nation's history.