4th of July in DC -- (I'm almost done with vacation pictures)

Are you tired of my vacation yet?? Thank you for putting up with my posts. I know if I do not record this somewhere, I will forget some of the wonderful memories we made. I only have this post and one other left to do and then I will be back to the normal every day happenings of my life. Yippee!! Don't get too excited! :)

The 4th of July in DC was another amazing day on our vacation. It was very rewarding, very hectic, very tiring, and very enjoyable all in one! We spent the whole day with my cousin Eric, his wife Whitney, and his step daughter Katie. The city was very crowded and there was heavy security. It was neat to say we were in our nation's capital during Independence Day but we will probably never be there on a major holiday again. The security blockades kept you from seeing several sites up close, i.e. the White House. The Mall was fenced off and there were security checkpoints to even get onto the Mall. I'm not complaining. I'm thankful for the security. It just made it a little more inconvenient to navigate to the various sites. Still a great day for Bryan and I though. We did a ton of walking and my leg was not doing too well on this day. My ankle was swollen so much the skin cracked. I couldn't wear my support hose because I had a heat rash and razor burn!! But I still was thankful I had two legs to walk on and my wonderful, adorable husband was very patient and very concerned. The next morning he got up early and drove to a pharmacy to pick me up some burn cream and then some medicated powder to put on. He was an angle!! Thank you Buddy!!

Enjoy the pictures! I'll try to keep the narration to a minimum!! :) Wish me luck!!The Washington Monument was even prettier at night.Our next stop... The World War II Memorial. This was new since we had been there. Bryan and I both really wanted to see this. His PaPaw was in the Army during the War and my Poppy was in the Navy; both in the Pacific area.
Bryan was pointing to an area where his PaPaw fought in the War, New Guinea. His grandpa saw some major combat.There is a wall of stars in memory of the service men who died in the war. The gold stars reflect in the small pool. It is hard to see in the photo but it truly was beautiful.

After the WW II Memorial, Bryan and I visited briefly the Korean War Memorial and then met Eric at the Lincoln Memorial. The Korean Memorial was beautiful. Statues were strategically placed throughout the grounds and faces were seen in the granite wall.

My older sister really admires and loves Abraham Lincoln. I wanted her to be with me and experience this trip so badly. I took a lot of pictures for her (I won't put them all on the blog). She is going to have her Elementary Ed Degree next Spring and I kept thinking she could use them somehow, somewhere.

Above: View of the reflecting pool and Washington Monument from the Lincoln Memorial.

Our little family at the Lincoln Memorial. I loved it that Katie wanted to stand by Bryan and I!!!:The Vietnam Wall. This photo shows the start of the wall which appeared to me to be in the middle. The names are listed in the order the men/women were killed.

We accidentally came upon a parade on our walk back to find something to eat. Which by the way...I had the best chili cheese dog from a vendor ever!!! It was delicious. Expensive, but delicious. Bryan and I each had a chili cheese dog and one water and it costs us $11!!! Not your Sonic Chili Cheese Coney price!! :)Due to security on the 4th, this was as close as we could get to the White House! Another tid bit, while we were walking through this park/lawn, Bryan came up missing. We all looked back and he was talking to someone!!! He had ran into a guy he knew from Norman. Bryan had taken a few graduate classes with him!!! Hilarious that we came all the way to DC and Bryan ran into someone he knew!!! The guy was playing frisbee with the tour guide we had at the capital!!

Do these guys look tired or what!!! And we were still 5-6 hours from the fireworks!!!

The temperature cooled off somewhat. We had road the subway into Arlington to grab a bite to eat and I picked up a thin long sleeve t-shirt to wear. Then, we went back into DC and found one of our many spots (we moved at least 3 times) to watch the fireworks. It rained on us some, but I didn't get too wet because I stood under a tree which could have been dangerous if it was struck by lightening!!! The light shower felt kind of good though!!

Pre-Rain Photo Shoot:

During Light Sprinkle Photo Shoot (I love Bryan's face in this!!! He was being silly!!!):And now ladies and gents (there's only a few gents who read my blog) I present to you the few shots of the fireworks! These were the best I had. It was glorious to watch and hear!! There was constant fireworks and booms!!!Bryan made us all leave a little early and we watched the finale as we walked down the street to the subway station and I'm so glad he did. This is what we encountered when we got to the tunnel. The police had to monitor the number of people going into the subway.When the people took their umbrellas down, we were splattered with water. But it was so humid and hot it felt great!!! We were so very thankful to get into the subway tunnel and then we waited for about another 30 minutes to get onto the subway. It was crowded and nerve racking but we are still glad we had the experience. Now we know what to do and what not to do and when to do it or not do it!!!