Independence Day

Happy belated independence day!  We failed to make it to any of the expat celebrations (which were all weirdly on Saturday and also way out in the boonies), so we made our own fun.  Elizabeth and the kids met me downtown for our appointment at the Ministry of Manpower to complete our immigration processing, and afterwards we tromped through downtown towards Gardens By The Bay for a light show.  First, however, we had to stop for the traditional 4th of July sushi dinner:

 

We found a living wall that was also a map of the world and a pretty great reflective sculpture:

Followed by some scrambling on an artistically minimalist public play structure:

And then made it to Gardens By The Bay just as dusk was falling.  The SuperTree Grove is a collection of 8-16 storey dynamically illuminated sculptures covered in a variety of exotic (to Singapore) plant species that can grow without soil along the steel "trunk".  Every night there's a light show set to music, with a rotating theme that changes every few months.

The light show lasts about 15 minutes, and makes a surprisingly fine stand-in for fireworks.  The whole thing reminds me of something I'd expect to see at Burning Man, though the musical accompaniment would probably be something other than the showtunes medley we got.