We woke up this morning very well rested and got ready to leave. We had decided earlier that we didn't want to have to carry around a bag (dealing with the security checkpoints and all) so we packed the digital camera, an extra battery and extra tapes for the video camera into Beth's purse. We were driving from Luray up to Fairfax, VA to get on the DC Metro (at Vienna/GMU). We got up there and couldn't park as the lot was full so we found a metered spot out on the street near the station. Then we found out we didn't have enough quarters to feed the meter for the 12+ hours we would be gone - instead we, in good faith, put 10 hours of time on the meter and hoped for the best.
We hiked up to the Metro station, bought our farecards and went down to get on the train. So far so good. We rode the train in to Federal Triangle where we got off right in the middle of the parade activity:
No clue why the Teletubbie made it into the parade, but whatever.
At one point during the parade, we went up to a cross street and were going to cross over (with a mob of other people) to the other side of the road. When there was a break, one of the policemen motioned that it was okay for us to cross. All of the sudden, as we were getting ready to cross, this lady stepped in front of us with her hands on her hips facing the parade and just stood there. I said "excuse us", hoping to quietly slip through like everyone else did - she responded back: "Everyone is supposed to cross in the crosswalk, our blanket is here". The people behind us grumbled as well while we all went over 10 feet so as not to interfere with her territory.
After the parade, Beth needed to go to the bathroom. They had a ton of port-a-pots setup in the National Mall but you had to get through security checkpoints to get to them. Once the parade ended, there was just too much mob to deal with that. Instead, we walked up towards The White House and stopped in the White House Visitor's Center. They had air conditioning, bathrooms (real, not portable-out-in-the-heat-and-crowds) and not too many people... It was neat to look around in there for a while. They were running some kind of family program where they had kids signing the Declaration of Independence - that took up more than one half of the Visitor's Center so we kinda hurried through the other half. I'd be very curious to go back.
Next up was a trip to the White House (since we were so close). Beth took these pictures:
From there, we hit a hotdog vendor for hotdogs and a bottle of water (Neither of which were as filling as we had hoped) and headed out to the Capitol to get in line for the concert. The "A Capitol Fourth" concert was scheduled to begin at 8pm with admission to the Capitol lawn beginning at 5pm. We got in line at 1:45pm (it was more like a crowd than a line) and waited there until about 2:45 when we gave up. No one had gotten "in line" behind us and we were baking in the sun. We walked around to another hotdog vendor for two hotdogs and a bottle of water. We only had $5 and would have needed $6 but he gave it to us anyway (either to be extremely kind or was afraid we'd go somewhere else if we wandered around for an ATM). He was really nice about it.
We got back in line for the concert back down at the US Capitol. Beth met some nice people while I wandered around looking for a trashcan (seriously - HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of people at the US Capitol and ZERO - literally ZERO - trashcans). I ended up walking all the way back to the hotdog vendor to find a trashcan.
We waited in line talking with our line-neighbors for a while. At 5pm they still hadn't opened the gates and started moving people through security yet. Then the excitement level stepped up a notch with this announcement from the head guy with the Capitol Police at our gate: "There is an electrical storm in the area. If you wish to seek shelter, we are opening a parking garage across the street for your shelter and safety. This is optional - if you wish to seek shelter, proceed to the parking garage".
About 5 minutes later, he made another announcement which was followed by an announcement from the stage: "Everyone must evacuate to the parking garages - this is a mandatory evacuation".
We backed up away from the entrance gate where we had been in line, but stayed on the US Capitol property. As the US Capitol Police made their rounds, we backed up further and further. Finally, we ended up across the street in a park. US Capitol Police cars drove up and down the street announcing that everyone must evacuate to the garage. I was extremely uninterested in sitting in a parking garage with 200,000 other people and figured I'd prefer to take my chances outside until the weather gave some indication of something worse than clear skies.
We (along with a ton of other people) were waiting in the park when a policeman came down the sidewalk insisting that we all go to the garage. After he told us we had to leave, I engaged him in a quick conversation:
Steve: "Excuse me sir, could you tell me where we can go that we wouldn't be on Federal property so we can wait out the weather"
Policeman: "You can't stay in the park, this is federal property - you need to go to the parking garage. There are several tornados that have touched down in the area."
Steve: "Can I go over there (pointing to a traffic island where other people were waiting) - is that federal property?"
Policeman: "Yes, that's federal property"
That was more or less the end of the verbal part of the conversation. In frustration, I gave up and figured I'd go across the street to 101 Constitution (the Washington Gas building) where there were a ton of people waiting. As we started that direction, the policeman yelled back at us "That's federal property over there" (he thought we were going to the traffic island, which we had to cross to get across the street).
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Beth has some other comments........
Backing up a little bit-
It had started to sprinkle when the security guards made the announcement about inclement weather. We weren't worried and it was kinda fun to watch everyone communicating on their walkie-talkies like there was a major storm moving in.
We left the line after the announcement and hung out at the park for a little bit. Every one was a little grumpy (the guy who sat down next to me had all kinds of nice things to say about the Capital Police). When the policeman came over to tell us to evacuate the park, there was a general growl that went up.
Although Steve politely asked the policeman where we could go that wasn't federal property, I could see that he was in no mood to take attitude from anyone. As Steve was talking to him, a girl moved up to our conversation and was making comments like, "Well, you keep telling us to go places and making us move again". Between the girl and Steve, the policeman didn't look very happy. I think he threw in that last remark to us about the traffic island being federal property just because he could. I didn't want to get arrested, so I tried to gently usher Steve away from the nice policeman.
The day was getting better and better! We had fun hanging out in the 101 Constitution Building and watching the weather unfold. It was raining hard, but not nearly the kind of weather (hail and all) they had predicted.
Finally it cleared up....
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Here are some pictures from our wait:
(Beth was pretending she was stuck in the ficticious tornados they kept trying to scare us with)
When the rain seemed to let up a little, we saw a giant mob (presumably from the parking garage) running towards the Capitol. Everybody took this as a sign that the were letting people in now. We stopped and got a soda and another hotdog for me (Beth wants the record clearly showing her at TWO hotdogs, not three) and ran up to the security checkpoint. We made it through easily and found a seat on the front stairs of the Capitol. Here are some more pictures:
The concert was fair. Tony Danza was the host - he was a little loopy... The music was pretty good (the symphony was great!). Dirks Bently was especially good (he was the biggest act of the night). Then came the fireworks. I was disappointed - they could have been so much better if they lowered the giant screen from above the stage:
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