The 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th of July

What a wonderful week/weekend! On the 1st we had our small group over for pizza, cupcakes and Bible study on the roof. On Friday the 2nd we had another lovely meal upstairs. This time an impromptu hamburger feast with a few friends who don't mind last minute plans. We had two kinds of patties (au poivre and blue cheese and bacon) grilled pineapple, squash and onions, salad, juicy watermelon, blueberry scones with lemon curd and ice cold Coca Cola. When the sun went down we walked across the street to a new restaurant for drinks, live music and to watch fellow patrons attempt to ride a mechanical bull.


Saturday was the epitome of a lazy slow paced summer day. Seriously slow paced. I'm not afraid to say we happily slept until 11:00. Later in the evening we met up with more friends for a Bowie Baysox Baseball game and ballpark food (the most unique treat was a Chesapeake Pretzel: stuffed with cheddar cheese and sprinkled with Old Bay seasoning). The evening weather was spectacular, the Baysox won while dressed in their patriotic uniforms, and we got a good fireworks show afterward.


On Sunday the 4th we went to church, ate lunch at home, watched TV, then headed over to celebrate Independence Day like never before - on the Capital lawn in Washington DC! We had been planning this outing for a year and everyone we ran the idea by was very encouraging of it. The crowds weren't half as bad as we assumed and overall it was a very enjoyable experience. On our way to all the hustle and bustle, we took a quick walk through the US Botanic Garden before they closed. This (& the fireworks show of course) kept in line with us doing something new every trip into the city. Later on we hadn't seen any food vendors (well, there was the Hare Krishna free food tent...) so we opted for supper at the Natural History Museum cafe --- a safety net we've relied on a few times already. Once through security back on the Capital lawn we found a nice plot from which to view the fireworks just as the concert started. From there we couldn't see the stage, but did hear Gladys Knight, Darius Rucker, some American Idol guy, and Reba McEntire. Then the show we were really there to see began! Half the lawn crowd quickly realized they only had a view of the stage, not the fireworks so there was a lot of standing up and shuffling about (which annoyed me, and others I'm sure, who carefully secured their pyrotechnic watching plots hours ago.) Inevitable with large crowds I suppose. Aside from that it was a marvelous show and fun new patriotic experience.