"Happy Independence day!" Oli said to me as soon as the alarm went off this morning. Bleary eyed I scrambled to my feet and thought "oh crap, we've got to go on the metro again..." Over breakfast of bagels and cream cheese I tried in earnest to learn the American national anthem. Sure I already know the start and the end but it's the bit in the middle that just won't sink in. No wonder Christina Aguilera struggled with it - I can't even learn the first verse!
Not sure if all of you know this, but Oli was actually born in America
I chose our outfits carefully this morning and thought a theme of red, white and blue was appropriate. Although I have clothes I haven't worn yet my ensemble today has been worn a couple of times over the last five weeks. To avoid getting as soaked as yesterday (the weather report said there may be showers today) we remembered to bring the most essential part of our outfit today, our pack-a-macs from Susan!
The metro wasn't as packed as I thought it would have been as yesterday on the radio they kept announcing “plan your journeys early and carefully”, but as we came out of the station at the other end there was no need to look at a map to see where to go, all we had to do was follow the crowds!
The crowd led us to the beginning of the parade where there were already thousands of people, about 10 people deep. It was a cross between the Just when we were thinking we should have got up earlier to get a good spot I noticed an opening where the zebra crossing was, and thought if we lingered around that area and people stopped crossing the road we could watch the parade from the front of the gap. Hurrah! It worked! Perfect view!
We were on the second corner of the parade near where the television cameras and photographers were. I convinced Oli this morning to bring the big American flag rather than the little pocket-sized ones. Me and my white vest and red, white and blue hula garland around my neck plus the big American flag caught the eye of the cameras and I got my close-up! I think I pulled off being an American! Hopefully my patriotic attire led them to believe I was a real American rather than an English tourist!
The parade was just like you see in the films, with marching bands, cheerleaders, huge floats and massive balloons being pulled along. It was all over-the-top and great!
The parade was about an hour and a half, and nearing the end I started getting pins and needles in my feet where I hadn't moved for so long. As the parade was nearing its end we made a quick getaway and headed to the Natural History museum. So far the weather report had got it wrong - it was hot and humid and the coolness on entering the museum was a welcome relief.
I haven't been to the 
Still no sign of rain, we headed to the White House, hoping to get closer this time and have a proper picture taken in front of it - result! With a good buzz in the air we headed down through downtown Washington Lincoln
The firework display was due to start at 9:15pm, we had been in town since 11am and although were physically tired from the constant walking around we didn’t want to head back home beforehand. At around 7pm we started looking for a place to have dinner, we toyed with the idea of going in “Ollie’s Trolley”. From the outside it looked fab with toy-like antiques in the window and the place had an old fashioned funfair feel. We popped our heads in but disappointingly it was just a fast food place which we didn’t expect. With mainly burgers on the menu we were looking for inspiration when we spotted the “Elephant and Castle” an English style pub and restaurant – it would have been rude not to go in! 
Inside it did a pretty good job of replicating an English pub, and had the London Elephant and Castle motif. I ordered a chicken curry and Oli fish and chips. They fell down slightly when I asked for a half lager and lime, for one they don’t do halves and two they presume you just want an actual slice of lime! After Oli explained the English format to them they gladly obliged, the woman standing next to us at the bar even asked what it was as she wanted one!
The food was pretty tasty although mine didn’t truly represent an Indian curry, bless them they even slice the chicken as if it’s in a salad! Oli was slightly disappointed not to have mushy peas with his fush n chups but coleslaw instead….mind you I don’t get mushy peas either – yuck!
We left the pub at 8:30pm, it would seem the rain had held off, which gave us time to stroll back to the mall and secure a place on the grass to sit and watch the fireworks. Sit?? Grass?? Every single little piece of space was already taken up, 45 minutes to go but these people were serious 4th July fans and have been camped out for hours with their fold up chairs, freezer tubs, tents etc. Oh well we’ve been on our feet for most of the day so another hour won’t kill us!
We had a prime view of the tall Lots of red white and blues, fireworks that went in to huge heart shaped patterns were my favourite. The finale was dramatic to say the least - hundreds of fireworks were lets off in such quick succession that the sky was practically all smoke. My trusted camera managed to get the shot as well as a few of the thousands of people in the crowd.
The biggest difference between this display and most I have seen before is that the crowd are usually silent looking up to the sky with open mouths, here everyone was whooping, clapping and cheering…I guess there’s a lot for them to be celebrating! Really glad we stuck around for it, so nice to be a part, even if so small, of this great occasion today, we may have been the foreigners who set light to the White House all those years ago but we were made welcome and even called “our English cousins”J
Sadly we have to leave Washington/Maryland tomorrow, our travels will take us further up the East cost – next stop Atlantic City
J&O
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