A Capital Capitol Fourth

This was my first Fourth of July in our nation's capitol, and what an event it was! After 3 Independence Day celebrations overseas, I was looking forward to being back in the good ol' U S of A for a change.

Julio came in town for the weekend, which was great. Friday we went down to the Mall- and the crowds on that day were already pretty insane. We had lunch at the Native American museum (the best lunch on the Mall), went to see the Star Spangled Banner exhibit at the Museum of American History and then visited the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It was a great afternoon, but the number of people wandering around the Mall and using the Metro confirmed that we did NOT want to be part of that on Saturday (the city of DC estimates that 500,000 people used the Metro on Saturday alone).

On Saturday we went to a friend's house in the Capitol Hill area. His building has a rooftop deck, and around 8:45 we went up to the roof in anticipation of the 9:10 Capitol Fireworks show. We were treated to, literally, 360 degrees of fireworks. We could see every small and large fireworks display in the Virginia, Maryland and DC areas- from bottle rockets set off by the neighbors to what were clearly larger community shows in other areas. It was wonderful. And then, right on schedule, the Capitol show began. While we didn't get to experience all of the music and the cannons for the 1812 Overture, it was an absolutely amazing sight.

Now, those of you who are reading this in Texas and Bangkok will especially appreciate what I have to say next. What probably amazed me the most was the weather. Up on the roof, I was actually a bit chilly. In JULY! It was most certainly the first time that's ever happened to me.

It was a great evening and I'm glad to have been here in DC to celebrate my first Independence Day as a member of the Foreign Service. Next year- Mexico! (I tried to upload a video of the fireworks here, but it doesn't seem to be working. Oh well!)