Happy Independence Day!

We braved the crowds and went down to Washington, DC with my parents, Karina, and Snoopy to celebrate Independence Day. We took in the Smithsonian's Folklife Festival that is held every year during July 4. This year, they were spotlighting Rhythm and Blues, the Peace Corps, and Colombia. Dad and Mom enjoyed listening to the concerts at the Rhythm and Blues. We liked them too. We got some dinner at the Colombian food stand - unfortunately, they didn't plan well, so they ran out of serving plates. Even though they had the empanadas that my parents wanted to try, they didn't have plates to put them in (and they had premade too many of the other food items taking up plates that wouldn't be used). So my parents wound up with chorizo that they felt was subpar. I negotiated with my cashier and Tanja and I wound up with our chicken and empanadas (the empanadas were placed in cups that normally would hold water). Oh well.

We were really impressed with Karina. This was her first adventure away from home for so long (we left the house around 12:30 and didn't get back until 11 PM). When it was time to eat, Tanja just found a bench tucked away in some side street or the sculpture gardens that offered some degree of privacy, and Karina got to eat. I love these pictures of her.



This was my fifth time down to DC for the fireworks. Every other year, I would go and stake out a spot on the Capital Lawn for the Capital Fourth Concert that PBS puts on. I have also always relied on public transportation and taken the Metro down. This year, we didn't want to sit around for five hours (the Lawn fills up early), so we decided we would watch the fireworks from closer to the Washington Monument. Since we were bringing Snoopy (he was so excited that he got to go on this adventure instead of getting ditched at home like he has during our many trips to do errands this week), we drove down and parked in a nearby garage. I was surprised, but it turned out that this was cheaper than it would have been to ride the Metro down for us four adults. I don't think I will be riding the Metro down there for this again.

Here we are at our location for the fireworks - check out the crowds!



There were a few minor rain showers while we were waiting for the fireworks. We did our best to keep Karina dry.


I was excited to bring my tripod down to try to take some good fireworks photos and since we had our car in the garage, we could bring it down and leave it there until we were ready to set up our spot with our camp chairs, blanket, etc. I was really happy with how the pictures turned out - a steady base makes all the difference in night shots. The later in the show, the more smoke in the air (as shown in the pictures).




Snoopy did better than expected during the fireworks. He sat on Tanja's lap and was scared and jittery, but as long as Tanja was holding him, he was ok. I will say that he was quite excited to get out of there afterwards (although he had trouble navigating through the crowded sidewalks to get back to the car). His favorite parts of the day were sniffing out all the food that was dropped on the ground of the Mall and getting petted by various strangers that he approached when we were sitting and relaxing.

Karina thought the fireworks were really pretty and enjoyed watching the lights (and the lights from people's cameras). She didn't fuss at all during the show. The most difficult part of our journey back was getting out of the parking garage because of all the pedestrians.