Independence Day at the Capitol!

So I have some good news--I ordered a mini-SD card adapter and it's here!   Yay, I don't have to steal Upshire Girl's pictures anymore :D  On the downside, the pics aren't as high quality.  However, my camera (after some ridiculous mishaps) will be arriving in DC soon, so look out for better pics in the near future!

Also, guess who I found wandering around Washington DC on July 3rd!

Hipsters Anh Thu and Harpreet hanging out at Union Station

And now, your feature presentation...


Getting the day off in the middle of the week is pretty nifty.  But then again, I'm supposed to always get Wednesdays off so I have time to prepare for my Spies class...  Anyway, it was still exciting because... IT'S THE 4TH OF JULY!  Yay, happy birthday, America!


Everyone slept in on this lovely Wednesday, waking up around 10ish to get ready to head out around 11AM for the 4th of July parade.  Bracing ourselves for the terrible weather as predicted by Yahoo! Weather, we doused ourselves in spray-on sunblock in hopes of avoiding the painful effects of excessive UV exposure.  Gigi warned us that the Metro would be ridiculous today, so we took the 30-minute walk over to the National Mall to watch the parade.  Despite making a couple stops to buy sunglasses, water, and various items, we made it in time to see the start of the parade at noon.

Thank you, servicemen, for fighting for our freedoms and looking incredibly handsome while doing so ;)

Our beloved servicemen were followed by a group that I'm not quite sure was appropriate to have in the parade, but Upshire Girl said that the parade organizers didn't want to be discriminatory lol.

The British are coming!  The British are coming!

Then followed more random marching bands and floats.  I was looking out for Fremont High in Sunnyvale, but alas, I did not spot them so I guess they weren't invited to come or couldn't make it.  I have to say though, FHS, you would've impressed the pants off of the crowd with your marching skills.  Even as a non-marching band person, I noticed the uneven marching in each group.  As Gordon Ramsay (not that he has anything to do with marching bands) would say, what a shame...

Hello Uncle Sam!

Hey Boo Boo!

While I stood there sweating, these great dancers from Bolivia danced like no tomorrow--amazing.

Hey look, it's my people (i.e. Vietnamese people)! XD

We spent about an hour watching the parade, then decided to go grab some lunch.  Since it's worked well so far, we went with the plan of just walking along and finding random places to eat.  After walking around a couple of blocks, we decided on a popular-looking Ollie's Trolley.  Not feeling like a giant burger, I settled for the BLT with Ollie's fries and a lemonade.

See that lemonade I'm holding?  I finished that in about 5 minutes.  Not because it was magnificently good (it was pretty good though), but more because I was incredibly dehydrated.  If you visit DC, keep that in mind--sometimes you don't realize how dehydrated you are, so be careful and drink lots of water.


After lunch we headed over to the Old Post Office because Gigi's boss said that we'd be able to see a fantastic view of DC from above.

On the outside, the building looked majestic and awesome like many of the old-fashioned looking buildings in D.C.  Inside, it was just another tourist attraction.  It was a little sad seeing the once-busy, enormous building full of tourists, and yet still so empty.  We explored the shops a bit, and Lauren and I even look a couple of silly pictures at a little camera shop.

Ground floor of the Old Post Office

"Pucker up more!" instructed the cameraman.  LOL

The wait to ride the elevator up to the top floor of the Tower took ages!  I became a little irritable because the building was so warm (I don't think there was any AC) and my feet had already started to hurt a bit from standing in one place for so long.  However, it was definitely worth the wait.  The Tower gave us quite a nice view of different parts of DC, and the nice breeze at the top was a nice touch to the experience.

Too bad we couldn't watch the fireworks up from the Tower because it would've been perfect!  We spent some time up in the Tower to rest and cool down, then decided to trek over to a Smithsonian museum to relax in the AC.

On the way back down to the ground floor!

Sadly, we ended up picking the Air and Space Museum again.  Curses!  The only reason why I accepted this decision was the promise of $1 ice tea from the McDonalds that was part of the museum.  Unfortunately, the McDonalds at the Smithsonian did not offer the dollar menu.  How dare they!  Too tired to complain very much, we ended up just filling up our water bottles with lots of ice and cold water to hydrate and getting some ice cream/McFlurries/frozen lemonades to cool ourselves down.  It was only about 4PM, but we were already pretty exhausted.  The heat really zaps your energy!

Poor Gigi!  She was super tired and fell asleep at the table.

The Air and Space Museum actually had a special concert that day with performances by the United States Air Force Band--pretty spiffy!

They sang a bunch of crowd pleasers like Don't Stop Believing by Journey and Rolling in the Deep by Adele, as well as your typical American patriotic songs.  They amazed me with their immense talent--the singers had beautiful voices and the band played together really well.  I also learned that every Wednesday, Air and Space has a summer concert series with various performers every week.  This may be a reason then to go there more often.  Hmm, interesting.

We stayed in the museum until almost 8PM when it closed, staying in the cooling AC as long as possible.  A lot of people actually had the same idea as us, so the museum was incredibly crowded up until closing.  Fireworks were supposed to start at 9PM, so we went to grab a quick dinner at Cosi and walked back over to the National Mall to find a nice place to sit and walk the show.

Awaiting the fireworks!

Yay, dinner!  I got the fire roasted veggie sandwich.  It had eggplant in it :)

We sat on the sidewalk where we could get a clear view of the Washington Monument, since we were told the fireworks would be shot off behind there.  After a slight delay, a bright sparkly explosion lit up the night sky a little after 9PM.

Firework photos courtesy of Gigi Yeung

I'm usually not that big of a fan of fireworks, but there's just something about seeing fireworks lighting up the night sky by the Washington Monument that brings a tear to your eye.  Cue Lee Greenwood's "Proud to be an American."  The show lasted about 20-25 minutes long, but definitely well-worth our ridiculously long day.  There's no better way to celebrate the Fourth of July than to celebrate it at the capitol with fireworks by the Washington Monument.  Amurica.

Gigi's boss' advice came in handy as we trekked home.  Never have I seen so many people walking on the streets.  Even after concerts and shows, the crowds don't seem to fill the streets as much as after this fireworks show.  The scene resembled the evacuation scene in Will Smith's "I Am Legend."  I felt slightly wary and expected for zombies to jump out and kill me.  Alas, there were no zombies; there were just miffed drivers that furiously honked and shouted profanities at pedestrians that crossed the streams in giant swarms, even when the traffic light said they weren't allowed to cross the street.  It's okay--Upshire Girl screamed back them for us XD

So many people!

My feet had never been so happy to reach home.  After a quick shower to wash off all the salt and grime from the long day, I passed out a little after 11PM--the earliest I have ever slept in DC.

Because it's a special day, I will leave you with TWO DC tips of the day :)  Happy 4th of July!

**Tip #1: Be conscious of how much water you drink if you're out exploring in DC.  If you forget to bring a water bottle, people often sell water for $1-2 outside the large attractions (like museums) so make sure you have some cash on you, just in case.  Heat exhaustion is very common during the hot DC summer days.**

**Tip #2: Never take the Metro on the 4th of July.  The UC Washington Center is actually walking distance to the museums/the National Mall (though it does take about 25-30 minutes), so do yourself a favor and save your cash + a lot of your time and just walk around DC on July 4th and other large holidays.**


-Agent 024