unforgettable

I just wanted to outline my day on the 4th. I've never laughed so hard in my entire life, I don't think.

So we drove into College Park on the 3rd and slept until about 8AM, when we got up and ate breakfast at our hotel. We decided that we would eat an early lunch around here and then pack a picnic dinner to eat in the city so that we could get a good spot to see the fireworks at 9:15 that evening.

There was a 60% chance of rain.

So, we went on our quest to find groceries. First, we went to "My Organic Market," which is completely windpowered and had tasty food. Yay. However, since they're into saving the planet, they did not have ziploc bags, which are necessary for putting peanut butter and jelly in your pocketbook. So, we GPSsed it and found that there is a Safeway. We drove in that direction.

Well, when we got to the Safeway, it was not a Safeway; instead, it was a Bestway, which is a Latino market. This was quite funny. But the food was really cool-looking so we bought some. We also found some "Awesome!" brand ziploc bags, but alas, there were no umbrellas. So, we went over to the Rite Aid to buy umbrellas. And chocolate. And card games to entertain us while we were waiting on the fireworks.

So far so good.

After that, we headed into the city on the Metro. The station we went to has a "Kiss and Ride" parking lot that we find amusing.

So we get off at the Capitol South stop and try to go to the Library of Congress, and it's closed. So we take pictures there, take pictures at the capitol, eat Snoopy bars (which I forgot existed), continue to head towards the national mall...and there are all these tents there! The first one we see is for "Vegetarianism." We continue to wander around and figure out that we're in the middle of a Hare Krishna festival tent outreach thing. But they let us try on saris and gave us vegetarian food and books about their religion. I've always wanted to wear a sari, and now I have. *checks off of life to-do list *

After that we continued to wander around the mall. We tried to get into the national gallery but it was closed. After that we decided that most everything was probably closed since it was the 4th and we wandered around in the Smithsonian Folklife festival, where they covered the random topics of Texas, Bhutan, and NASA. There was some pretty cool stuff there.

We were going to visit the monuments/memorials but found most of them were blocked off. So, we just headed down toward Lincoln Memorial where we had decided to sit and wait for the fireworks. There were a whole lot of people there, and by this time, probability had won and the rain had started. We hung out under cover of the Lincoln Memorial until the rain subsided, then sat down at the bottom of the steps there, spreading out our plastic bags and the sheet we brought to sit on.

We ate dinner and started playing Uno, and then...start feeling rain drops. It's getting faster, not slower. We have nowhere to go, so we form a tight huddle and make an umbrella dome where we're way too close and all getting wet anyhow and laughing so hard. It rained for so long and the entire time we were laughing and trying to take pictures and hoping it will stop soon. Soo Been starts trying to grab the ankles of the people walking by us, because that's all we can see. She succeeds in touching one guy's leg. hahaha.

Finally it did. We did damage evaluation. Victoria's purse is soaked all the way through, the blanket is completely wet, we're wet, the ground's wet, everyone's wet. But we survived!!!

Still dripping wet, two high-school age guys approach us, one explaining to us that the other does not have a 4th of July date, and the dateless one expressing what a horrible idea this is. We take a picture with him.

The fireworks were incredible. We watched them, got our things together, and began to leave. People are wading in the Reflection Pool. And they're not getting arrested. This is a golden opportunity. We step into the edge of the reflection pool and take pictures of us jumping out of it. We don't get arrested either, only warned by a kind bypasser that we should put peroxide on any open wounds since we will get infected by the goose poop in the pool. We get out of the pool. We walk forever to the L'enfant station, which I call the "Elephant" station or the "Infant" station. We get back to my car.

It's late now. We GPS a Seven Eleven to get peroxide. GPS leads us to a nonexistent Seven Eleven. We GPS another Seven Eleven and find it. No peroxide; there's only Neosporin. We'll settle. I'm completely disoriented. I GPS the hotel, so I think. I start driving and we end up on a freeway where traffic is crazy and drivers are inconsiderate and we almost die like three times. I say, "I know our hotel wasn't this far away." I hand the GPS to Soo Been, and she discovers that our hotel is on Baltimore Avenue while I chose Maryland Avenue...which is the location of the Elephant station. Oh. That's where we're going.

GPS finds us. We get back to the hotel without dying.

The end.

Best, craziest, fourth of July ever.