A Capitol Fourth: Year Two

Yes, I really am that lucky.  Now I’ve been in the hands-down best city to celebrate the 4th of July two years in a row.  This year was totally different from last year, but equally awesome.

For starters, Annie came and spent the weekend at my place.  Unfortunately she had to leave just before the fireworks so she could make it to work on Tuesday, but we packed a ton of adventures into all of the time leading up to it!

Exhibit A: This time we explored Old Town Alexandria, the cute city where I live.

We wandered the historic streets…

… and supported a cute independent children’s bookstore…

… and ate ice cream…

… and frolicked on the waterfront.

Exhibit B: We made taco soup from scratch. And 4th themed cupcakes from a box (thanks mom!)

Note the dancing robot timer, recently purchased in NYC after years of desire.

Exhibit C: We attempted to go to the rehearsal for the Capitol Fourth concert… which evolved into something else exciting.

This is us staking out a spot on the capitol lawn.

This is us ten minutes later taking refuge in the American Indian Museum. (Photo stolen from the wonderful Bianca)

This is us being sad that we don’t get to see Steve Martin, Josh Groban, the teacher from Glee and others for free.

But then this is us going on (slightly damp) adventures under a beautifully colored sky.

Annie even made friends with a lightning bug.

And everything looked wondrous.

So we didn’t get home till late.

Exhibit D: We went to the 4th of July parade downtown.

We also got distracted by pretty flowers and Potbelly sandwiches.

Exhibit E: The 4th of July fireworks, naturally.

This year for the big night I hiked over to the Iwo Jima memorial in Rosslyn with some friends who are current Washington Seminar interns, after getting some delicious Ray’s Hell Burger.

From the memorial you can see the Lincoln, Washington Monument and Capitol building all lined up. Very American.

Soon the sky lit up with pretty colors.

And some of the fireworks looked huge enough to be the size of the entire mall.  They made the monuments look tiny!

(I think my favorite fireworks pictures are still the ones from last year when I brought my big lens, though. So you should give them another look!)

The metro after was a mess.  It took me over an hour just to get through the gate and to a train, but it was totally worth it!

Here’s an album if you want to see all of the good and bad pictures (code for: this is for you, mom).

A Capitol 4th Year Two VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

*song = Tightrope by Janelle Monae. Also one of the coolest music videos, I promise.