A Capitol Fourth

As the Fourth of July approached, Shawn and I weren't sure what we wanted to do this year. Last year we went to watch the fireworks at the UNC stadium, which was fun. We eventually decided to make the trip up to D.C. Our good friend Cassie is there, and what better place to spend the 4th than the nation's capitol? Plus, another set of friends had highly recommended the experience.

We headed out on the third for the D.C. area. Traffic was surpisingly light, but a wrong turn following the GPS and a thunderstorm had us driving through downtown D.C. at 10 p.m. at night in an effort to find Cassie's place. We eventually made it and had a nice (late) evening with her.

The next day it was the 4th. There isn't a lot that happens on the National Mall before 2 p.m., so we instead went to Bethesda to get DC/Georgetown cupcakes (like on the television show!). Cassie and I have been a few times, but it was Shawn's first trip. He was impressed by the cookies and cream cupcake. Unfortunately, there are no pictures from this. The cupcakes were so good--we ate them!

We then decided to take the metro to the National Mall. The metro wasn't too crowded, but as we stepped out of the metro, the intense heat hit us hard. It was a lovely 95 degrees, but the heat index reported that it felt closer to 105. I think the heat index was right. We didn't last more than two hours. We had packed water, and we spent time in the shade, but we felt like we were melting.

We walked around for a bit and explored.

And eventually headed back to the metro. Of course the one we chose to go to was closed, so we had to walk another 8 blocks in the crazy heat.

We then spent the evening making lasagna, watching fourth of July specials, and the Capitol fireworks from Cassie's rooftop deck. Although we didn't see the fireworks up close, we had a nice view, and the best part--air conditioning was only a few floors away. Maybe next year we will actually see a bit more of D.C. for the fourth, but seeing Cassie was celebration enough.