American Adventure

Washington DC

Thank you to my good friend Andy Braden for all your assistance

Starting on July 04, 2002, 8:10:32 PM

Today was a wonderful day. I drove up to DC to start off my trip and got these shots of the city the people and the fireworks.

I figured it would be easier to get around and park with the motorcycle. Well, it was surely easier to get around but, of course, I still had to abide by all the traffic laws anyway and wait in a little bit of traffic.
I found the Ronald Reagan building and was able to park for only $7 and it was only a block away from the Washington Monument area.

This first picture is of the Capital building. After a brief security check I was right there under the Washington Monument and thousands of people.

Hilarious, this picture shows the long shadow of the Washington Monument. The funny thing was how the crowd of people were all positioned directly in the shade and how they seemed to scoot across the ground following the shade.

From the location right at the foot of the Monument you can look in every direction and see all the buildings like the White House pictured here in the distance.

In various places around the mall area there were garden hoses and places where people could get out of the heat and get a little wet. The kids really seemed to enjoy these places the most and were making quite a mess.
Some of the kids were playing with a group of small fountains.

As it got closer to sunset the whole place got extremely saturated with people, all getting into position and finding a good view for the fireworks display.
Across the way I could see the hundreds of people all over the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The fireworks were launched from both sides of the reflection pool.

The fireworks display was incredible and it never ceases to amaze me how they can design them to display some of the different shapes that they do. Shapes like “smiley” faces, “peace” signs, and stars within circles popped up, one right after another, seemingly without any flaws.

I took tons of images, some good, lots bad. This was the first time I ever tried to take pictures of fireworks. The light adjustments were quite difficult to keep up with. While some of them came out way too dim,

Others were so bright they lit up the whole area with Earth trembling blasts that you could feel right into your heart.

The whole day was just awesome. Even with the heat over 100 degrees, and such an incredible amount of people, everybody was just friendly to each other and having a great time.

Overall it was an incredible time. A most wonderful day to remember.
As always, it was, and is, a great day to be alive.

I do have to apologize though. Please forgive me but I did some backtracking this day and went back to Fredericksburg for the remainder of the evening. Things just worked out that way but I am glad and definitely on the road today, the 5th. Look for me in Pennsylvania.

Peace to all