ajmatt blog

This is the only day of the year you will hear me utter the words: “I hope it doesn’t rain.” Because on this day, I like fireworks more than I like rain… and you know I like a good rainstorm.

If you have been to our house, you probably didn’t notice our “view” of the Washington monument. By “view” I mean if you stand on a bed, on the top floor, in the dead of winter and lean precariously toward the window, you can see the very tip.

Luckily, we can walk 30 feet from our house to a road with a real view of the monument. This means that every Fourth of July, everyone in our neighborhood (and then some) stops traffic to watch the fireworks on the National Mall. People gather in the middle of this street, setting out chairs and blankets. Someone always brings a radio so everyone can listen to the NSO Capital Fourth concert.

[Photo note: see the wee white tip in on the horizon? That's the Washington monument. It's easier to recognize in the picture on right.]

Our little viewing point is moving up in the world, or at least got written up as a good place to go, because we ranked two fire trucks this year, a big one and a little one. They didn’t do much, just hung around and made sure no one did anything stupid.

This year we weren’t sure the show would happen–the Mall was evacuated after a tornado warning (what is it with me and tornadoes?), and a lovely thunderstorm rolled through and threatened to knock out our power.

The skies cleared just in time, the temperature and humidity levels were reasonable (a first, the locals tell me), and Matt and I had a good view, even though the fireworks were a little low to compensate for the cloud cover.

Crazy Matt took 419 (!) pictures, but we promise not to put them all up. For now, take a look at our new favorite tool, the animation feature: