Hot damn, it’s hot out!
That was pretty much the single thought that continued repeating from my lips throughout the entire Fourth of July. My friend Ai Rei, who is visiting me from the blissfully frozen wasteland known as Toronto, wanted to be in the Capital for at least a portion of Independence Day. Absolutely, I told her, we’ll see how long you last in the heat. 😉


So Sean, Rei, and I piled onto the Metro and traipsed into the city to take in some of our nation’s capital. Unfortunately, a ton of stuff was roped and fenced off, not only for the holiday security, but also for construction in general. So it wasn’t quite the easy breezy monument tour I had in mind, though we still got some good ones in. Ai Rei is off taking in the Smithsonian sights as I type this, so hopefully that means she hasn’t been totally turned off by the city!


Ai Rei is a total photog, so naturally, many pictures were taken. Avast ye!








Did I mention it was hot? It was flippin’ hot.

As sweaty and disgusting as we were, I can’t imagine how bad it must have been for some of the people dancing and marching and whatnot in the parade!

Mr. King, Jr. agrees.



As does Honest Abe.
I convinced Ai Rei that the five hours it would take to metro home after the National Fireworks just wasn’t worth it, so after we were sufficiently destroyed by the heat, we crawled back to the Metro. My subsequent shower was the most amazing shower I’ve ever taken. Then after a quick, super patriotic, dinner of hot dogs, the three of us joined my family over at the Falls Church celebration!

My brother‘s 80s cover band, Judo Chop, rocked our faces off before the fireworks began.

And then before we knew it… KABOOM!




The Falls Church fireworks show was actually really impressive. They had SO many! I was all “ooh” and “aww” and generally agog with delight. I hope you all had an equally wonderful holiday. Happy Friday!
