Independence Day 2010

July 4th, 2010 I officially completed the first of my 30. Rather than recapping the whole day for you I figured I'd leave you with what I learned that day :-)

1) Enjoy what's going on around the city (but don't cross the road when there's a break in the parade!!) 

Tito Puente Jr.

There is so much going on in general that is worth checking out! This year Tito Puente Jr. was performing, there was the Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the Mall, and we got to see a portion of the parade. The parade was fun - marching bands, horses, dancers - I snapped a few pictures while standing on top of a large planter on the side of the street. While Dave and I were stopped, lots of people were running across the street between parade groups directly in front of us, so when we were ready to head to the Mall we followed suit... Apparently we looked dangerous because (as people were crossing around us!), a parade official stopped US and sent us back, telling us to cross the street at a crosswalk. Dave brought up the point we should have just stood there and stared at him, pointing to the people crossing around us until the next parade group was almost on top of us and he had no choice but to let us go through... In hindsight I agree with him! However, IF you attend the parade, in order to not be us (;-)) cross the street at a crosswalk. 

Smithsonian Folklife Festival

2) If you want to hear the concert, go to the Capitol. If you don't care to, closer to the monument is probably better.  At 3:30 Dave and I unfolded our chairs under the trees right next to the Reflecting Pool in front of the Capitol Building. It was hot out, but not unbearable in the shade. The sound check started at about 4:00 and I could hear Darius Rucker's voice bouncing off the steps of the Capitol across the water. I could make out words. I was excited :-)

Our view of the Capitol from the comfort of the shade.

Cannons being driven in

Cannon set-up

Around 5:00 they unloaded the cannons for the 1812 Overture (which I taught an entire unit on to my 5th graders last year - but I'll spare you those details as well ;-)) DIRECTLY BEHIND WHERE WE WERE SITTING. The evening progressed and we moved out from under the trees to the center of the farthest section of the Mall from the Washington Monument. Sadly the sound that was audible during the sound check was absorbed by the numerous bodies sitting in front of the stage, so we couldn't hear the concert at all. The cannons were another story!

Sun setting on the Capitol building

The crowd on the Mall

3) Bring games to play! We wished we had and we were very thankful for the games we had downloaded on our phones while we sat and waited. A deck of cards would have been nice rather than draining our phone batteries.

Dave's chair and Pinwheel

Jacqui, Brian and Dave were awesome for humoring me!

4) Pinwheels and Glow Bracelets make everything better 

The teacher in me had to get 'party favors' for the group that came out to join me on this part of my 'Big 3-0' so we put together pinwheels and, once the sun went down, donned glow bracelets :-)

The Capitol during the concert

5) The fireworks are awesome! Special thanks to Helen for lending me her tripod for my camera - my fireworks photos never would have turned out as well otherwise! 

6) When the fireworks are over, it's a mass exodus to the metro. Once the fireworks were done, Dave and I sat on the Mall for a while until it cleared out, then packed up and walked back to Metro Center. The crowd of people waiting to get onto the platform was enough to clue us in that we needed to do something else for a while. Instead of going to a bar and getting a drink, we went to his (air conditioned! with plumbing!) office, drank some ice cold water, ate a snack out of the snack machine, and stood on the 9th floor balcony and watched fireworks being set off in Maryland and Virginia. It was a 360 degree fireworks display and it was a very calm, inexpensive way to end the night.

And finally.....

7) You're lucky when you have a significant other who will do anything to make you smile, even when the day doesn't go quite the way you expect it to. Thank you, Dave! You made my day!