Fourth Of July

My cool american flag light up necklace that the best

roomate in the world, Hope, sent me for the 4th

The whole group

Abe Lincoln and Ben Franklin


My flip flop tan after only 2 hours at the parade

The capitol lawn - we were thank goodness in front of all these people

How Patriotic - because we were in the front we got lots of free stuff

this is how good of a view we had of the fireworks

more fireworks over the Washington Monument

So finally here is my fourth of July post, it took awhile because it has literally taken me this long to fully recover from the day. I have never sat in 10 hours of 100 degree heat in my life, and to put it lightly I was EXHAUSTED! I woke up on Sunday morning and was sick because I had been SO hot!

But even though it was so hot and such a long day of sitting and waiting it was DEFINITELY worth it! It was probably the most amazing fourth of July I have ever had. First of all you cannot get much better than being in the nation's capitol for the Fourth of July, and second of all DC has the highest rated fireworks show in the country, so yeah it was pretty amazing!

We started our day at 11am and headed to the mall, and we got there just in time for the 12pm parade. It was a fun parade with lots of bands and patriotic music, and there were even two bands from Washington State, the All-City Seattle Marching Band and a band from Gig Harbor whose director went to UPS for his music education degree. So that was 2 hours in the sun, and then we went into the National Gallery of Art, not to look at art, but just to sit in AC and cool off and refill our water bottles before the 6-7 hours of sitting at the mall. This is a time when you are so grateful that museums are free because you don't have to pay to cool off which was a blessing of the 4th.

Then at 2:30pm we went to the Capitol Lawn to get in line for security so we could get a good seat for the 8pm Capitol Fourth Concert. The security was really strict and they wouldn't allow umbrellas, and I had brought mine for shade so we wouldn't get so sunburned. So I tried to hide my umbrella so I wouldn't have to throw it out but unfortunately security found it and so I had to throw away my really cute purple and white polka dot umbrella. I was not happy, but what can you do, and at least I didn't pay a lot of money for it. I bought a new one the next day, and though they didn't have the exact same one they did have one that was opposite of my old one, so I guess it was ok in the end.

So finally around 3:10pm we got in to the Capitol and went to find Bonnie, who had gotten through security first and had gotten us AMAZING seats, they were right near the rope which is where they rope the "normal" audience off from the VIP audience, so basically we were as close as we could get and we also had a perfect view of the Washington Monument.

After we sat down we had to wait 5 hours for the concert to start, so we did lots of sitting and snacking and chatting, and thank goodness the musicians rehearsed for us because otherwise it would have been so boring. And then part way through the 5 hour wait the PBS filming crew came and gave the people in front free patriotic stuff so that we would look good on TV and all decked out. The coolest performer that came and rehearsed was Gladys Knight because she had us participate in her rehearsal which was fun. But David Archeletto also rehearsed a bit and so did Darius Rucker. It was pretty cool, and we were able to get close-up pictures that we wouldn't have been able to get during the concert.

Then finally at 8pm the concert started, and it was AMAZING, all the musicians were so good and I even got on national television more than once which was pretty cool - something to check off the "Things to do before I die" list. Then after Reba McEntire sang they began the fireworks off the Washington Monument which were incredible, it was truly the best and longest firework show I have ever seen. The pictures don't really capture how incredible it was, but I tried. And the Capitol was the best place to be because the National Symphony Orchestra and a Marine Band were accompanying the fireworks, and it was pretty cool hearing the 1812 overture live and seeing fireworks at the same time.

After the fireworks were over we walked to the metro, and even surprisingly got a seat on the way home which was amazing considering the amount of people at the Mall for July 4th, I think there was something like over 3,000 people, basically imagine the mall filled with people from the capitol to the lincoln memorial and even more people at the Jefferson memorial.

It was crazy but was an AMAZING 4th of JULY!!!