I am glad to report we have an excellent 4th of July down on the DC Mall. We decided this year to book a hotel room nearby so we could spend the day and then retreat to a room when needed. And boy- was it needed yesterday. Right around 5:00 PM some ripping thunderstorms came through the area. The rain was horizontal as it just pounded DC for about 20 minutes. We had retreated from the heat of the day for a breather (and showers, change of clothes and dinner) so we were able to watch nature’s fire works from inside the restaurant. I feel for all those folks down on the Mall when that storm hit.

Early in the day we enjoyed most of the parade down Constitution and watched as President Bush arrived in three Marine helicopters (we were between the White House and the Washington Monument). Definitely a multi-cultural event with Taiwanese Americans, Vietnamese Americans, Sikh Americans interspersed in an endless sea of high school bands and cloggers.

I had forgotten how large the DC fireworks are. We came back down to the Mall after the storm blew through (to a much cooler and wetter Mall). We placed ourselves down the hill from the Washington monument that leads to the WW II Memorial and the reflecting pool, basically staring at the crowds at the Lincoln Memorial. This has been my favorite location years past and it did not dissappoint. What was interesting is how the launching of the fireworks has changed since the WW II Memorial had been put in. In years gone by the launch site was right where the WWII Memorial is now. But because that locations is now occupied the launch area is the sides of the reflecting pool. The launches started at the Lincoln Memorial side and marched right towards us, getting higher and higher over our heads as the show drove towards its finale. It was an excellent location.

Even the departure from the Mall was interesting. Last night DC practiced its emergency evacuation plans by closing central streets to traffic for 30 minutes to allow pedestrians time to drain away, and then they timed lights and traffic flow to maximize car travel out bound. It worked really well it seems, though we were in our room by ten watching the rerun of Italy’s amazing upset over Duetscheland. It was a great idea to use the 400,000+ people there for the show to test out the traffic patterns.

Hope everyone had a safe and fun 4th!

Addendum: And yes, we walked by Sheehan’s miniscule ‘protest’ many times – and it was nothing. When the size of the crowd at a protest doesn’t even equal the nuber of porta-potties in one quadrant of the Washington Monument’s lawn, you can tell it was a bust. I am serious. I saw more Don’s Johns between the Monument and the White House than people rallying with Sheehan. Conclusion: protest was a bust.