Independence Day

Oh happy Fourth of July from the capital city!

Michelle and I went to the Smithsonian folk life festival were there were a number of universities on the national mall. 

 The world made out of plastic bags! This was our "MTC" picture. Please recycle! :)
 

 Me laughing after I had been offered a scholarship at the University of Mississippi, they said they were seriously impressed by my natural ability for milking.  :)

Going up north for the Fourth of July made me realize how much pride I have in my new North Carolina home! I was actually really excited to leave the city and head back down south after a long week.

And certainly not least, the fireworks!!

I had re-confirmation by some of our blanket neighbors that my doppelganger definitely is Willie Nelson...

 

I don't know if any of you remember my previous claims to the title... :)

Anyway... we set up camp at the Iwo Jima Memorial to watch the fireworks from afar.

This is the view behind where we set up...
 

And a few hours later this was the view in front...
Across the river you can see the Washington monument lit up.
 

The lawn was packed by this time and after there was a mad rush to the Roslyn metro stop! Here is a snapshot of the streets of DC flooded with people!

It was so crowded I did not attempt to photograph the mass that funneled into the underground metro station. As each train car came, it was shoved full of people, body to body! When out turn finally came, the train car that stopped in front of us did not have any lights on. That was odd, as all other cars on this train did have power. The doors open and people poured out saying "enter at your own risk!" We were no stranger to power outages by this time, so we hastily packed on the train car - like sardines into a small can.

The doors closed behind us and whew! It literally felt like someone had just dumped water over the hot coals in this sauna! We were dripping sweat from the ends of our noses and down our backs!! The couple by the train door had a large cooler and said "Hey! we still have plenty of cold beer to go around!" Cheering and drinking commenced! Metro rules prohibits food or beverage of any kind on the trains. But not this night and not on this electricity-less and lawless train! There was an middle-eastern man who was grabbing every third beer that was held up by the couple. Once they noticed he just smiled and said with slurred speech "I drink to your health!" :)

 

Our victory faces once we made it off the metro and back to the private parking garage. If you could touch this picture... it would be soaking wet! :)