Day 3: Knives Are Not Allowed, Neither is Sauce

Finally, Independence Day!  When planning my trip, this was one of the things I was most looking forward to.  I love the fourth and I was greatly looking forward to seeing how our nation's capital celebrates the big day.  Tom was humoring me in this endeavor.  He was concerned about the heat and the crowds, etc.  I was so thankful, though, that he was willing to entertain this one idea of mine.  I had done some researched, and contacted friends, who live in the area asking for tips and tricks to making a successful day.  Water seemed to be the number one priority, so we packed a ton of water, a blanket, and a couple of sandwiches from the deli downstairs.  It was time to go.  This was also my first time on the metro.  Tom navigated us down to the Federal Triangle metro station.  Here, we got off and began walking...and walking...and walking...

After visiting the White House, we stopped on some lawns for a picnic lunch.  Tom ate his sandwich and I snacked.  I had watched the very nice man downstairs make my lunch and he committed a very big crime.  Sauce.  I am just not into sauces.  So, when I was ordering I looked through the pictures and saw a chicken wrap.  The ingredients listed were: lettuce, tomato, onion and mayo.  Okay, I'll have this sandwich with no mayo.  Next thing, I know, he is putting thousand island and American cheese on my wrap.  Whoa, whoa, whoa, cowboy.  That is not what I ordered.  So anyway, I basically knew I would not be able to eat my wrap.  Tom did a good job at salvaging some of it.  It wasn't a big deal, it just meant that I had to spend more money on buying food that day then I would have otherwise.  Oh well.

Next up, was trying to get into the chained off portion of the lawns for where they would be shooting off the fireworks. As we waited in line, we noticed a sign that listed off all prohibited items.  Knives were on the list, and, of course, Tom had his knife.  We deliberated what to do, and Tom decided to go up to one line, and simply state to the bag-check officer that he had a knife, show it to him, and see what he said.  The guy said, "No.  No knives.  You can watch over there."  So, essentially it was okay to have a knife on one lawn but not on the other.  Tom asked me if it would be a big deal to watch the fireworks from the other lawn, and I agreed that it would not, but that I had really hoped we would be a lot closer.  Tom, being the amazing man that he is, was like okay, plan B, now that I know how their searches work, I will just put it deep down in my bag, and they'll never find it.  They're not even checking bags that thoroughly.  Of course, as Tom is going through, they start questioning him about why his bag is so heavy and he points out that we've got about a gallon of water in there, and then they start rummaging.  And, I mean, seriously rummaging.  They tore that bag apart, and yes, they found the knife.  Just prior to finding the knife, the officer asked Tom is he was military.  Tom said, "Former." So, when they found the knife they had to deliberate back and forth about whether or not he could come in.  Finally, they said, "Are you going to stab anyone?"  Tom said, "Of course not."  They said, "Good, or we'll have to shoot you."  And, that was that.  We were in!

In addition to the White House, we saw the Vietnam and Korean memorials, the WWII memorial, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and finally set up camp at the reflecting pool.  I had seen several of the monuments before.  But, I had not seen them before with Tom.  He loves him some American history.  So, it was a very fun experience to get to be with him on this day.

Once we had visited all the sites we wanted to see, we setup camp near the reflecting pool, as we knew the fireworks would be launched over the pool.  Now, we got to wait for five hours until the show began. During this time, Tom was able to read the entire Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and it's amendments.  I spent a vast majority of time in line for my dinner.  Tom still had sandwiches from the picnic in the morning, so I went to find some sort of food.  By the time I returned, ate some dinner with Tom, and found a bathroom, it was time for the show to start.  The bathroom trip took slightly longer than expected because it turns out I ended up having to keep track of a small Indian child.  I got in line behind a man and his young son.  The man did not speak English very well, but I could see he was confused because several men kept passing our line and coming out before our line had even moved.  He finally asked me if I could watch his son so he could see if there was a line for the men's room inside the building.  I said that was fine.  Of course, the minute the man was out of sight, the boy looked up at me, and was apparently terrified and tried to book it out of line!  AGH!  So, there I was snapping my fingers, and calling for this boy to come back. I didn't want to lose my place in line, but I couldn't lose this man's kid, either!  Luckily, a few people behind me a woman had seen what was going on, and grabbed the little boy and said, "No.  You go.  Stand with the lady.  You no run away.  Your dad will be right back."  So, he returned to his place in line.  Later, as the line progressed, this same man came rushing out of the men's room and heads straight for me, "Have you see my son? I cannot find him."  Uhhhh...no, I returned him to you.  I did see them later after I had used the restroom, and he was telling his son, "You cannot go running.  That scare me!"  Very interesting indeed.

By the time, I was able to make my way through the crowds and get back to our camp, the fireworks were ready to begin.  It was just as spectacular as I had imagined.  Sure, they only lasted 17 minutes, but it was 17 minutes of finale!  One after the other, explosions in the sky!  We were so close that I could feel the big "boom!" sound of the firework reverberate in my chest.  It was awesome.  We were right under the fireworks.  I don't think I will ever see a better show than that!

Lastly, I have to steal something from Tom's Facebook page.  I just thought it was too good not to share.  But, these were some of his thoughts, reflecting on Independence Day, and more!

"On Friday, I joined Lady Jaye and a few thousand of my best friends to celebrate our nation's Independence Day. I'm a Republican with nothing nice to say about Barack Obama, and I'm sure there were plenty of folks there who voted twice for Barack Obama and have nothing nice to say about George W. Bush. Statistically speaking, about twenty people in the massive crowd of which we were a part have anything nice to say about Congress. It impressed me that, at least for a few hours, we all put our differences, fatigue, and frustrations aside to join together for such a fun event.

Today, I was listening to a podcast of the Michael Medved show from last Thursday, which I'd missed because I hadn't been in a position to listen on Friday or over the weekend as I normally would have. Medved did an hour on patriotic songs, to include taking calls about memorable Star Spangled Banner performances. Someone called in to recount an event I'd never heard about in my home state of Oregon, during a game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Portland TrailBlazers. The story and the audio of this event nearly brought tears to my eyes while I was sitting at my desk. When a teenage girl faltered on the lyrics, Oklahoma City assistant coach Maurice Cheeks came to her aid, and by the end of the song the entire arena had joined in to sing together. I encourage you to Google "mo cheeks national anthem" and read the story for yourselves.

We as a country have a lot of problems, as we always have and always will. We disagree on the best way to solve those problems, and we must unfortunately send our imperfect peers to fifty state capitals and one national capital to try to solve those problems. Things often go awry. I think it's important, during this time of year, to remember that what goes on in those capitals isn't America. Events like the one in this video are America; the workings of the wheels and cogs in those fifty-one capitals are merely those machinations, those necessary evils, which must take place in order for the real America to take place every day. It's what some of us make great sacrifices for. Though we may get frustrated with one another, and disagree on substantive issues for substantive reasons, I hope you'll all take a moment to watch this video and remember with me that we're all in this together, and that we should strive to act like it."Mo Cheeks - Leadership In Action

P.S.  The answer to yesterday's trivia question:  BLONDE  (You thought I forgot didn't you!)