This blog was started 3/24 and am finishing today 9/20/09....
"Tonight's the night we're gonna make it happen.... I'm so excited and I just can't hide it, And I know I know I know I know I know I want you, We shouldn't even think about tomorrow, Sweet memories will last for long long time, We'll have a good time, Baby, don't you worry.....~ by this time most of you probably have realized where these words are from-yes, they are the lyrics from-I'm so excited...by Pointer Sisters. Everytime I hear this song I am taken back to the time I watched them in concert in the grounds of the Capitol -Washington D.C on Fourth of July,2001.
What a night that was-cold, wet and full of excitement & tons of fun! Talk about toughing it out-D.C in Summer-hot & humid and then suddenly the torrential rains. It rained so hard that not even the umbrella's were of any use-yet we still had them up...funny! My daughters' hair were pasted to the head and even they didn't care that it was cold rain--not very cold like California rain but cold nonetheless. Anyhow, this was the end of our vacation-the whole 7 days we had been in D.C it had barely rained and of all days it had to rain the 4th of July when the fireworks were supposed to go off. Well,let me go back from day 1 and take you all on a tour of D.C, the Capitol of our nation and the surrounding areas.
Day 1-The D.C area itself-restaurants, shops, museums, parks and coffe shops-we walked and walked and walked. We had parked our car at the hotel because finding parking in D.C is not easy. Good thing we had packed our walking shoes. We bought maps and simply walked and stopped when we needed to drink something or just rest. From the Smithsonian to the White House, to the Union Station and on to the museums. Sometimes we got on the buses/shuttles (we had bought whole day passes) to drop us off a street and we didn't care where we were as long as we were within the D.C area.
Day 2-We decided to go into the Smithsonian Museum-wow! what history-I'm a fanatic of historical stuff so I was practically drooling! The Hope Diamond, Aircrafts- Air & Space museum, Native American artifacts-The American History, Natural History with Dinosaurs, Minerals,Darwin's Legacy, and all those neat stuff...next the Art Museums--fascinating art-modern & ancient.
Day 3- We did some more Art Museums and the Union Train Station-with the Union Plaza-oh yeah! Shopping!! The best part-I don't know how many shops had been there then but there were plenty enough for us. The girls had just begun to shop at a "upper" level store-but other stores were still OK. LOL .We walked around, ate lunch at a park-at the "Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife" had been on then-and then walked back to the hotel--a 1.3 miles (one way)-coming back my daughters did complain of being tired but not cranky so my husband & I were both glad.
Day 4 -The National Archives-amazing collection! From music, science , books, to letter written by the past presidents. That was fun for all of us. That evening we had gone out to eat (previously we would eat in the hotel restaurant). There was this nice Indian restaurant a few blocks away from our hotel so we decided to walk there-by the 4th day my husband & I had begun to miss the "masala"-spicy food. :-D We had an execellent experience.
Day 5-We took the tour bus to the Arlington area,Lincoln Memorial,Jefferson Memorial, Washington Memorial, Vietnam Wall, Korean Wall & to the Capitol and that was a whole day affair too. We must have stood in line for over an hour before we could enter the Capitol-fascinating place! The Monument Tours were great also. All kinds of artwork & history over there also-well this was the place where historic events took place.
Day 6-We drove this time to Mount Vernon-George Washinton's Estate & Garden-gorgeous place! It was an amazing place with the Potomac River down below and the home & the beautiful gardens and walkways with flowers everywhere! We spent the half the day at Mt. Vernon and then drove through Baltimore, MD to Gettysburg Battlefield. What beautiful countryside it was. If you can imagine-green fields and pasture with white fences and red barns. Only thing that Ididn't like was that the freeway/highway signs weren't as great as California-you don't know how good you have it until you don't.
In California (from my experience) the signs gave ample time to make an exit if you were paying attention of course but in Maryland & Virginia it was so different. Gettysburg was an adventure in itself-we drove around slowly enjoying the green hillsides and gorgeous views of farms and of course the battlefields where the civil war had been fought. We stopped in the town to eat lunch, walked around to buy some souveniors but didn't linger much because the forecast had been of torrential rain. So, off we went back to D.C enjoying the drive back-we had gone around in a circle to come back to the hotel. Sorry readers-no ghost stories! Maybe if we had spent the night at Gettysburg? Oh well...maybe next time! We did pass Hagerstown, the outlet mall with over 100 brand-name stores. Funny how the girls noticed the sign to Hagerstown. :-D
We were beat that day! Got some fast food that day-were too tired to sit in the restaurant.Ate in our bedroom and went to bed--well my husband & I did-the girls were still excited about that day's sightseeing.
Day 7-Fourth of July! The other 6 days the weather hadn't been bad-it had rained in the night after being a little humid in the evening but this morning we work up sweating. Oh no and today was the 4th of July Parade. The concierge had informed us to leave early to get a nice spot to sit or stand so that we could watch the parade close up. So, away we went-must have waited over an hour on Constitution Ave before the first marching band showed up-the parade was great-we would have enjoyed it much more if it wasn't for the humidity that day- it was a long parade -60 units we had been informed and it was HOT! There must have been over 30 marching bands plus the very creative floats. After a quick lunch we walked back and took a nap that afternoon before we went to the Capitol to watch the concert and the fireworks.
It had been raining on & off after the parade (thank goodness) so we bought a couple of umbrellas and took the local bus to the Capitol-we had to walk a few blocks because the roads had been blocked for the crowd. And what a crowd--the West Lawn was covered with tents & people. It was exciting! The National Symphony Orchestra performed and Tchaikovsky's '1812 Overture' was played accompanied by spectucular fireworks over the Washington Monument. The M.C was Barry Bostwick and the performers were Luther Vandross, The Irish Tenors & The Pointer Sisters -this was a 20th annual Capitol 4th on the West Lawn of the Nation's Capitol. Half way through the concert, it began to pour and we were soaked to the bone. And yet we sat there with strangers maybe not so-after clapping & screaming with them for 90 minutes and not caring a bit that we perhaps looked like wet chicken( but not so smelly) :-D.
We tried to use the umbrella's to avoid the rain but even the umbrella's gave in and pretty soon rain began to dribble onto us by coming through. My daughter's were still smiling when we got up to go--should we even put on our shoes? They were muddy & wet! We must have ran all the way to where the baracades were and hailed a taxi cab back to the hotel and finished watching the fireworks from there without any obstruction of the view of the Washington Monument-Amazing Fireworks! The cab driver didn't care that we were wet & muddy and we were very appreciative of that. What an adventure! What better place to celebrate the Independence Day of our nation but in the Capitol itself?
We took warm showers again and began packing for our trip back home. Our flight was to leave around 12:00 noon the next day from Baltimore and we were supposed to leave the hotel at 10:00 a.m. We set the alarm and crashed into our beds until the alarm woke us up in the morning-into the showers we jumped and down we went to get our final breakfast at the hotel restaurant. We waved goodbye to Washington D.C-our Nation's Capitol sadly but yet giddy with excitement with all the wonderful memories to take back home to California-to remember for the rest of our lives! Will I do it again? Absolutely-I/we still had so much to see-this time around we'll take our rain gears! :-D
