As one might imagine, the National Mall was decked out for the 4th. The Smithsonian's folklife festival featured the State of Texas, NASA, and Bhutan. Above, someone was warming up the ivories for an evening concert by Jerry Lee Lewis. "Goodness gracious, great balls of fire!"
Reed and J.D. pose on the north side of the Capitol. J.D. is also a pharmacist and a walking encyclopedia, but not in a flashy way. He just knows lots of stuff. He has spent considerable time in D.C. too but will soon return full time to Madison, Wisconsin, home of beer and brats (or is that Green Bay?)
Pam spotted this rather unique backpack on a teen who was touring the Library of Congress. "The force is strong in this one."
We ate Cuban food at the Banana Cafe. Spicy but not too hot, and the mojito tasted particularly good on a hot, muggy day. We then parted company with Anna and J.D. Reed wanted to see some of the memorials so we headed west of the Washington Monument. Monuments are dedicated to an individual while s/he is alive; memorials are dedicated to a person post mortem.
This photo was taken at the World War II Memorial, one I had not seen before. Each state is represented by one of the pillars in the background. We were plenty tired by this time and postponed a viewing of other war memorials until the 4th. After a good night's rest, we drove to the Washington Cathedral. Surprisingly, we had no problem parking near it.
In the basement of the cathedral is a gift shop. I thought I'd pick something up for my Aunt Emily but decided against it when I discovered it is an Episcopalian church. Emily is devout Catholic and, I think, a bit fussy about such things.
There was an organ concert going on when we entered. I snapped this shot [without using my flash] before a member of the congregation approached me and warned against photography during their "service." The colors in the photo are not enhanced.
It was not practical to find a parking space anywhere near the Mall on the 4th. It was a stroke of luck to find a parking garage for an organic foods store near a Metro station. We bought tickets for a Trolley Tour which was supposed to originate at Union Station. We took the Metro there only to learn that the trolleys were not running that day. We then bought tickets on another bus tour and rode around D.C. for an hour or so.
When hunger got the best of us we stopped for lunch at Martin's Tavern. Several presidents have dined here and legend has it that JFK proposed to Jackie in one of the booths seen in this photo. The food was good and reasonably priced, I thought. Rather than wait for another tour bus to pick us up, we decided to take a taxi to the west end of the Mall.
Pam was intrigued by our cabbie Zeke's long, gray 25-year-old dreadlocks and asked if she could photograph them. He happily obliged, even holding them out for her second shot.