I've recovered

We did it. We went to D.C. on the 4th to see the fireworks. I wanted to post a couple of times, but I needed to recover lol. I felt like I was hungover all of Saturday but didn't drink anything lol. We had a really great time and have already planned on going back next year. We didn't leave here until 5 in the evening. I didn't have much desire to venture off and do anything exciting this visit. We were only going for the fireworks. To my surprise, 95 was pretty much a ghost town. No traffic at all. We drove in to the first metro stop and parked there and took the metro all the way in. Only because the news and the newspapers and everything else I stumbled upon urged everyone to take the metro and not drive in. That'll never happen again. I'll get to that later. First, the good stuff. We parked at the station and took the metro in. We got off in Rosslyn to get something to eat. For those who are ever in D.C. and can't find a place to eat, hop on the metro and get off at the Rosslyn stop. There's a Burger King and several other little places there. It's just on the other side of the Potomac River. Finding food in D.C. isn't the easiest thing to do unless you're willing to buy hot dogs from those not so clean looking vendors hanging about. After we ate we headed over to the city. The kids love riding the train and were thrilled that we told them we were riding on it. Until the end of the night. I forgot to mention that when we got to the station and Mike was standing in line to buy our fare cards that some really nice people who had finished using theirs for the day gave them to him. Wasn't that nice? What would have cost us almost $30.00 didn't cost anything. Such nice people. Obviously tourists. When we got off the metro we headed over towards the Monument. They were going to fire the fireworks off on the National Mall by the Reflecting Pool in between the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. My tentative plan was to be perched somewhere on a blanket on the lawn around the Washington Monument. Until we got there and I realized you had to go through a great deal of security to go in. which wasn't a problem except the lines were pretty long. We decided to cross the street instead and head for a lawn on the back side of the White House in between the Washington Monument and the White House. There weren't many trees there, it was pretty open. It ended up being a really great place to be because in the end there were seas and seas of people on the National Mall. Last I heard they said about half a million people came. I think they were all packed on the Mall. And in the metro at the end of the night. the kids loved where we were sitting. They were having a big to do at the White House on the lawn. Not too sure what happened to my invite..lol :). At one point you could see that the President came out on the balcony and waved. That thrilled the kids to no end. It was really dark out and had been stormy so my pictures didn't come out very well. I tried to use the night setting but when I did that they came out a little blurry. So here's where we sat-

In case you you're wondering why nobody was sitting right around us, it because we were throwing a football around. It scared everyone away LOL! The Washington Monument was right in front of us. This is where most of those 500,000 people were.

I really hate to post any firework pics because the few I did take didn't come out very well. They were a bagillion times better in person. They were magnificent! I've not ever seen anything like it. They were just huge and looked like they were right in front of us. My brother was watching it on PBS and said the Army was firing off artillery shells. I couldn't see that but that would explain what we were hearing. With the combo of that and the fireworks, it felt like the whole city was shaking. We could feel our insides rumble, it was very intense! My firework pictures here definitely don't do them justice. They're definitely worth going to.

Everything was perfect until we left. We weren't far from the metro station but when we got there, there was already a massive amount of people. We waited about an hour and a half just to get in the station. There was nearly a riot because a bunch of people decided to go around the line to get in front. I don't know what happened up there but there was a lot of screaming and a few minutes later I saw them head to the back of the line. There were adults pushing and stepping on the kids. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to knock them out. At the end I had to give Mike the rest of our stuff to carry so I could carry Joshua (our stuff weighed more than him I think lol). If I wouldn't have he would have been trampled. I had Cassie holding on to me and Mike holding on to her and I made my way through the station. It took us an hour to get from our house in to D.C. and 3 to get from D.C. back home. We never got stuck on 95, all of the waiting was to get on to the metro. We'll never ever do that again on the 4th. From now on we'll drive all the way in. I don't recommend anyone take the metro on the 4th if you have kids. If you don't have kids and don't mind being sandwiched up against half a million people for that long then great. As for me, I'd rather be stuck in my car in traffic. So everything was perfect until we got on the metro to come home so next year we'll know not to do that. I highly recommend everyone who has the opportunity to go to do so. I've already got a car load for next year :).