Weekend Independence

Independence Day has always been cause for celebration. I've taken part in July 4th festivities in cities all over the country. But nothing compares to enjoying our nations independence in the heart of Washington, DC. The fireworks are some of the best in the world and hearing the National Symphony perform Stars and Stripes with rockets red glare over the Washington Monument is as patriotic as one could get.

So this year we set out a plan to enjoy a potluck picnic and watch the fireworks from the Iwo Jima War Memorial in Arlington. Only one problem...the weather didn't cooperate. I picked up Bethany to head out to our picnic location and quickly found every street closed and rain coming down like crazy. So we made quick alternate plans with our party. We enjoyed our potluck picnic with Michele and Elliot and a bunch of other friends at Michele's home and moved the fireworks watching location to my rooftop.



I have to say, it was probably the best July 4th I've ever experienced. My good friend Brian was in town from Delaware and staying with me, so he along with a group of others met up with us at my building. As we walked out onto the 12th floor rooftop, we were greeted with about 100 neighbors, free food and drinks and one of the best fireworks views you could ask for. The best part was looking around the city and seeing fireworks going off as far as the eye could see.

The weekend continued to be a blast well past July 4th. On Saturday, some friends and I had planned to go hiking, but with rainy weather in the area we decided to stay local and visit a museum. We took in the sights of the newly opened Newseum on Pennsylvania Ave. The Newseum is an interactive look at the history and theory of news as well as the news gathering industry as a whole. For a journalist, this is must see!

The highlight of our visit was seeing an old classmate of mine and then getting a behind the scenes tour of the various studios and control rooms. Oh, we also got to announce the weather in front of an actual weather screen and have it taped. Yeah, without a prompter it was a train wreck, but we had a blast. I'll have a photo and video of that uploaded in a few days, so stay tuned.

Overall, it was an amazing July 4th and holiday weekend!

posted by DVS @ 8:53 PM