New Thing #84 - Celebrating 35, 'Merica & Friendship - Day 4

July 4, 2014

Happy Independence Day America! So excited to be in D.C. today!

Apparently the pizza and beer that Brenda had the night before didn't settle well with her, so she ended up spending the morning at home trying to keep down some toast. We felt bad for her, but she assured us she would power through and didn't want us to miss any of the day's festivities. Megan and I begrudgingly left her behind while we made our way back in to the city.

The storm from the night before was heaven sent because I don't think the weather today could have been any better. The heat and humidity were low, the sun was out, and we spent as much time outside as we possibly could. I also planned on knocking some additional things off my bingo list today.

First stop: the White House. On our way there, we saw a Marine standing in front of a building taking photos with kids and other passersby. I thought this would be the perfect time for a second high five.

I asked him if I could give him a high-five and he laughed and said yes. I felt silly saying that my friend wanted a picture of the actual high five, so this was the best shot that came out of it. I promise it was an epic high five.

He was a good sport, and posed for another pic. Thanks for your service, random beautiful man on the street.

Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Building

My first glimpse of the White House. Not impressed.

Ok, this is much better! I guess I was envisioning the lawn/yard to be much larger to keep the house further from the street. But, it was still pretty cool to see it.

I'm glad Megan captured this photo of me attempting to take a selfie.

This took like five tries in order to get my face AND the building in there. I guess this is why I don't take many selfies.

This is a great picture of the two of us. However, the guy taking the photo did a terrible job of including the actual White House in the photo.

We asked someone else to take this one. Much better. I need to crop the guy on the left out though.

How is it that I took this picture in one take, and it's awesome?! I also love our matching patriotic sunglasses.

I forgot to show off the temporary tattoos that Megan brought. The A was starting to rub off before I could get the photo.

This is supposed to be a firework, but instead it looks like I have some kind of growth on my arm.

Final attempt at photoboming a tourist, and I nailed this one. His camera was pointed directly at me as I walked into his shot. Finally!

So, one of my Bingo tasks was to ask for directions in a foreign accent. This was my poor attempt at a British accent. Not to mention that I nearly lost my nerve in the moment, and I blanked on what to ask directions for. So, I said the Washington Monument, not realizing that it was literally right behind me and behind the White House. So, that's where my confusion came from. Not my finest moment. I do enjoy Megan's "Cheerio!" at the end though. :)

We wanted to spend time on the National Mall today, touring the grounds around the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial. However, the street we needed to cross was busy with a parade, and there was no way around it. Since we had some time to kill, we watched part of the parade, complete with marching bands, floats and balloons. Everything you'd expect from a 4th of July parade.

The parade started down near the Capitol.

Marching Band!

We weren't happy with my eating something red, kissing something white and biting something blue from my salad a few days ago, so Megan bought me a bomb pop to kill all three birds at once.

Eat something red. Check. Kiss something white. Check. Bite something blue. Check!

After waiting as long as we could, we finally saw that a patrolman was letting across a small amount of people during breaks in the parade. This was our chance to make a break for it. When our chance came, there were too many people in front of us to make it in time, and the cop yelled for everyone to stop, and that there would be another chance to cross. We were tired of waiting, so we ran anyway, with Megan personally being called out for being a later dasher. He didn't seem too authoritative, so I don't think we really had much to worry about.

After passing through security (the entire Mall was sectioned off with only small areas available for entering and exiting), we stopped to view the Washington Monument. It's unfortunate we never made an attempt to go up in it. The views of the city would have been spectacular.

Just look at that sky. Absolutely gorgeous out today.

We tried to do some silly photos. This is me holding up the monument.

This is supposed to be Megan with her feet resting on the monument. She was trying to show off her patriotic footwear. However, this ended up looking like she was doing sit-ups. (Side note, she made me take a billion photos of her with her feet to the side until she found one she liked. And then she deleted it.)

Cute!

Not really sure why I wanted a photo like this. But, Monument selfie: Check!

I promise I don't jump like this. I swear. This is terrible.

Next up was the World War II Memorial, then around the outside past the Korean War Memorial, and back to the Lincoln Memorial. Such a great day for a powerful walk through history.

Looking towards the Lincoln Memorial.

Zooming in.

This person wanted to take our picture with the Memorial in the background. However, it just looks like we don't want to stand very close to one another. It's awkward and terrible. But, I included it anyway.

Much better!

Loved this Memorial. Very beautiful and powerful.

In a few days, she will be an official Illinois resident!

I love this.

Korean War Memorial. Very true statement right there.

I found these guys to be unsettling. I'm not sure if it was meant to be that way or not.

I'm not sure I can say enough how gorgeous today was.

Lincoln Memorial.

Run up steps Rocky-style. Check! (I purposely ran like Phoebe on Friends to make the photos more animated.)

This guy is huge.

I like the architecture around the statue.

This would be a lovely photo if it wasn't for the random girl on the right. I'll have to try to photoshop her out.

I saw these four adorable guys walking in, and knew that my third high-five with someone in uniform had to be with them. This guy immediately volunteered, and I found out it was also his birthday! I think this was my favorite high-five of the week!

They were great sports! And, after my photo was done, numerous other people asked them for a photo. I made them famous. You're welcome, boys.

Not a bad view.

Brenda was finally feeling more like her old self by this point, so she came out to meet us for lunch near the Mall. After a delicious lunch with terrible service (so terrible that the manager comped us most of our meal without us even asking or complaining), we took the train down to Alexandria to see the quaint shops and the waterfront. It was such a gorgeous day that we couldn't pass up the chance to walk around and explore new areas.

The streets of Alexandria.

So many cute shops with lots of random things for sale. Sadly, they were nearly all closed due to the holiday.

Boats!

Water!

Double decker boat!

Hotties! We're all very patriotic.

After some ice cream, and some entertainment from the street musicians, we rode the trolley back to the Metro stop and headed back home. We wanted to pack up some snacks and make sure we had enough time to find a seat for fireworks later in the evening. Although the idea of seeing the fireworks from the Mall sounded cool, the reality of the sheer volume of people in and around the Mall, as well as the Metro, was not ideal. No way were we going to deal with that kind of madness.

Instead, Brenda told us that she was close to the Iwo Jima Memorial, and it would be a great place to relax and still see the show. Luckily for us, it was within walking distance, so no crazy Metro crowds. However, we (mostly I) underestimated how many people were also going to go to Iwo Jima. They had the grounds roped off, so we could only enter through one entrance where we had to go through security. No alcohol was permitted, along with all the standard items. The security guard asked me three times if my water bottle was vodka. Apparently, I look like a shady character. I told him he could smell it if he wanted to.

This is just one line. There were two to get in. And this isn't even the entire line.

Even though the line looked fairly long, it didn't take us that long to make our way inside. Somehow we managed to find a small area of grass not already taken up by other blankets, and we set up our picnic under the stars.

This is very iconic. 

Pretty powerful image in the fading sunlight.

The fireworks came directly through that clearing. If you look closely in the middle, you can see the Washington Monument.

Some of the people at the Memorial.

Friendship!

Our patriotic/mostly healthy dinner!

Turns out the weather was a bit chillier than normal for July. So much so that Megan and I brought light sweaters and towels to snuggle with. (Most of Brenda's belongings have already been packed up to take abroad, so she didn't have any blankets. All she had were the apartment towels.) And despite the fact that a few late comers tried to stand in the way of all of us who had gotten there for an early seat (they got quite the heckling from the crowd), the fireworks show was pretty awesome. The blanket next to ours brought a radio, so we could listen to the patriotic music during the show, and it was pretty spectacular. I mean, what's better than celebrating America's birthday in the birthplace of our country? Nothing, I tell you.

Had to get a shot of the moon.

This one is for Megan. :)

I only took a couple photos of the fireworks. I didn't want to have my camera out the whole time.

The Memorial at night.

After the fireworks were over, we headed back towards Brenda's along with the hundreds of other people all trying to make their way down the few sidewalks available. Since it was still early, we decided to head to a neighborhood bar for a few cocktails to end the night. Plus, I still had Bingo squares to cross off.

So, this guy sat down next to Megan and started making random innocent conversation. When he found out it was my birthday (sort of), he wanted to buy us all shots.

We also found out he was a Libertarian. So, Kiss a Libertarian: check. (Unfortunately, he turned out to get super drunk, really handsy and invaded Megan's personal space, so we didn't really talk to him the rest of the night.)

One of my tasks was to "Feed an Eagle". Shockingly, that's a bit more difficult to do than you'd think. So, instead, we decided to "Quench an Eagle's Thirst" by feeding my Allagash White beer to the eagle on Brenda's can koozie. Yes, alcohol was involved.

Rusty, the bartender was really nice to us, and when we found out he was a Republican (mostly), I asked if I could hug him. So, Hug a Republican: check!

Dancing with Abe Lincoln: check! (For the record, this guy looked nothing like Abe Lincoln, but he was the tallest, skinniest guy we had come across that had a smidgeon of a resemblance. He was game for it though.)

In case you need two second video proof.

Except for Brenda missing out on the beginning of the morning, this was a great day. I'm so glad I was able to see D.C. on the 4th!

Random side note from the evening. When I went to order my second beer of the night, a different bartender than Rusty asked what my tab was under. I told her that he had not gotten my name or my card, so I wasn't sure what our tab was under. When she asked him, he just said "Girls". When we laughed, he thought he may have offended us, so he asked what else it should be. Chicks? Ladies? Our Abe Lincoln look-alike, Paul, said he would change it to Hot Bitchez (with a z he said). And he sure did. When our tab came, that's what it said. I've never had a tab under Hot Bitchez before, but I liked it!