July 4th 2009
Today we knew what we would face. 500,000 of our closest new friends would converge on the Washington DC mall all to do the same thing as us. Watch the fireworks show at 9:10pm from the reflecting pool between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial and celebrate our Nation’s 233rd birthday. We thought we would know what we would face at the end as well: All 500,000 of us would say our goodbyes and leave at the same time going in the same direction… Hmmm… That might be interesting.
We took the Metro in from Old Town Alexandria around 10:30am and arrived in time for the parade at 11am. The parade started impressively with the military bands, followed by fun and silly floats and selected high school bands. We took pictures of the colorful pageantry. The parade lasted over an hour and a half. By that time we were hungry so we sat in the shade of a tree had one of the sandwiches we bought that morning at Safeway.
It was about 2:30pm after lunch and we sort of wandered around aimlessly trying to figure out what to do for 6+ hours before the fireworks show. We had to figure out if we wanted to go with the part of the group that wanted to crowd on the capitol steps to see the concert with Barry Manilow and Aretha Franklin… (an awesome spectacle)… or camp out between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial where we could see and hear the fireworks better. Seeing the concert would be awesome, but to get any kind of good seat would mean that we would have to camp out there for at least 5 hours. We couldn’t make a good decision without caffeine -- diet Cokes…it turned out we headed toward the Washington Monument.
We walked that way and found a spot center stage and put down our blanket, our stuff and ourselves. It was about 4:30pm by this time… only 4+ hours to wait. We snacked, napped, and took turns going to the restroom. We treated ourselves to the most wonderful ice cream in the world… Dove bars!! Mmmm.
We were able to use our cell phones OK until the hordes or herds of people arrived, filling in every spot on the grass. With so many people trying to use their cell phones, the cell service was overloaded. Around 6:30pm we could no longer get any service. I have never been is such a large crowd. To walk anywhere you had to be careful of hands, heads or feet.
There was a stage set up to the front/left of us. The Army Band played patriotic music and a new Army Pop Band played. Some country music artist played as well - John Willets?? (We weren’t familiar with his name, ‘cause we ain’t knowin’ no country music)
At 9:10pm precisely the fireworks started. It was a loud and amazing 20 minutes of colorful fireworks and we had both of our mouths open in awe. We may have swallowed some. Beautiful!!
At the end of the fireworks, all of us got up, packed up and herded out. Moo!. That was an event in itself. The worst part was walking to the metro in a mass herd and stopping in the middle of the street not being able to move for about 30 minutes…Maybe moving one step every minute. We started toward the Metro at about 9:30pm and got to the train at 10:30. Normally that would take us 20 minutes.
Well, I guess, now, we’ve been there, done that!!! Headed to the Misura’s home, and crashed!
Today we knew what we would face. 500,000 of our closest new friends would converge on the Washington DC mall all to do the same thing as us. Watch the fireworks show at 9:10pm from the reflecting pool between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial and celebrate our Nation’s 233rd birthday. We thought we would know what we would face at the end as well: All 500,000 of us would say our goodbyes and leave at the same time going in the same direction… Hmmm… That might be interesting.
We took the Metro in from Old Town Alexandria around 10:30am and arrived in time for the parade at 11am. The parade started impressively with the military bands, followed by fun and silly floats and selected high school bands. We took pictures of the colorful pageantry. The parade lasted over an hour and a half. By that time we were hungry so we sat in the shade of a tree had one of the sandwiches we bought that morning at Safeway.
It was about 2:30pm after lunch and we sort of wandered around aimlessly trying to figure out what to do for 6+ hours before the fireworks show. We had to figure out if we wanted to go with the part of the group that wanted to crowd on the capitol steps to see the concert with Barry Manilow and Aretha Franklin… (an awesome spectacle)… or camp out between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial where we could see and hear the fireworks better. Seeing the concert would be awesome, but to get any kind of good seat would mean that we would have to camp out there for at least 5 hours. We couldn’t make a good decision without caffeine -- diet Cokes…it turned out we headed toward the Washington Monument.
We walked that way and found a spot center stage and put down our blanket, our stuff and ourselves. It was about 4:30pm by this time… only 4+ hours to wait. We snacked, napped, and took turns going to the restroom. We treated ourselves to the most wonderful ice cream in the world… Dove bars!! Mmmm.
We were able to use our cell phones OK until the hordes or herds of people arrived, filling in every spot on the grass. With so many people trying to use their cell phones, the cell service was overloaded. Around 6:30pm we could no longer get any service. I have never been is such a large crowd. To walk anywhere you had to be careful of hands, heads or feet.
There was a stage set up to the front/left of us. The Army Band played patriotic music and a new Army Pop Band played. Some country music artist played as well - John Willets?? (We weren’t familiar with his name, ‘cause we ain’t knowin’ no country music)
At 9:10pm precisely the fireworks started. It was a loud and amazing 20 minutes of colorful fireworks and we had both of our mouths open in awe. We may have swallowed some. Beautiful!!
At the end of the fireworks, all of us got up, packed up and herded out. Moo!. That was an event in itself. The worst part was walking to the metro in a mass herd and stopping in the middle of the street not being able to move for about 30 minutes…Maybe moving one step every minute. We started toward the Metro at about 9:30pm and got to the train at 10:30. Normally that would take us 20 minutes.
Well, I guess, now, we’ve been there, done that!!! Headed to the Misura’s home, and crashed!
I would have went to the Barry Manilow and Aretha Franklin concert
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