4th July

 The sun was shining brightly on Washington for Independence Day. We caught the Metro to Constitution Avenue where the parade was to take place. 

On the way Pimple found a sailor.

We were there nice and early as I wanted to get a decent view and have somewhere to sit. We ended up near the National Archives and a nice lady gave Pimple a free fan, which came in handy as the day got hotter.

We ended up sitting next to a couple on holiday from Canada. They lived not too far from Vancouver and had driven their motor home across Canada to visit relatives. They had then crossed over into Maine and driven down via New York. Tomorrow they are driving back to Vancouver. They were a nice couple. We discussed Politics, they had a good bead on Boris Johnson - just a born liar - but were interested in what we though of Fishy Rishi. They feel Trudeau has taken his eye off the ball regarding homelessness and drug addiction in Canada.

The parade lasted about 2 hours. There are marching bands from what seemed like every state. Generally high school band and they were pretty good. All the bands have attendants walking with them sqirting water into the mouths of any unsuspecting bandsman or flag waver. I have to say they were generally very large and formidable looking ladies.

Every band has either dancers or flag wavers or both. 

There are also several completely random groups of people with giant inflatables. It was rarely clear who they were. I particularly liked the bald eagle with his wing on his hip.

There were horses followed by the pooper scooper person.

There were ex presidents whose "here's looking at ya" finger pointing was very authentic I'm sure.

There were a random selection of State beauty queens, worthy organisations like Park Rangers and random people on three wheeled motorbikes or skipping. Several ethnic groups such as Vietnamese, Sikhs, Taiwanese and Koreans also appeared.

After the parade we went to find some lunch and then walked around the Smithsonian Natural History Museum which is vast and interesting.

We wandered to the Washington Monument and took up a place to watch the fireworks right in front of it. As the day wore on it filled up to bursting point. Just as you think more people can't get in they find a place. Charlie's knees weren't liking sitting on the grass and a nice man behind us insisted Charlie had his chair. The daughter of the family in front us has a friend doing a PHD in Creative Writing at UEA in Norwich.

Just before the fireworks the crowd in front of the Lincoln Memorial all put on the torches on their phones. Our section responded, rather like a Westlife concert. The family in front said it had never happened before, I said they obviously knew we were coming.

The fireworks were brilliant, spectacular and with a musical accompaniment. There were some nice touches - fireworks which spelt USA when they exploded and some with smiley faces when they exploded.

It was quite a scrum getting out but not as bad as I thought it would be. The Metro was free for the evening and we managed to get on the first train that came along.