Happy Fourth!: Independence Day Weekend in the District
Wow, this past weekend was a blast (and I’m not just talking about the fireworks)! With the 4th of July falling on a Saturday this year, I was off work on Friday, which created a perfectly-timed three day weekend. I was quick to take advantage of the time off, and I stayed pretty active from Thursday evening all the way until Sunday night. On Thursday after work I was able to meet up with some friends that live in Bethesda, Maryland, who I had not been able to see yet this summer. We went out for an evening on in D.C.'s U Street neighborhood, and it was great to catch up with them.
On Friday, after a morning of relaxing by the pool, I met up with some friends who were visiting from out of town, and we went to Washington’s Jazz in the Gardens event in the National Gallery of Art's Sculpture Garden. Now, I’ve been to the Sculpture Garden before; in fact, I have a favorite sculpture: the group of headless figurines right on the northern side of the water pool. But Jazz in the Gardens is an event that brings in a jazz musician who plays for a few hours while visitors just lounge on the lawn. It was my first time going to Jazz in the Gardens this summer. Actually, I also ran into my supervisor from an internship I had as an undergraduate, which just goes to show you how small the city can be!
Saturday was actually Independence Day, and my friends and I went down to the National Mall to check out the fireworks after hanging out during the day. Despite there being a huge amount of mud to trudge through, we were able to sit between the Lincoln Memorial and the Reflecting Pool, and we had a great view of the fireworks for the evening. The fireworks show was awesome, and the grand finale involved a ton of fireworks that were, of course, all red, white, and blue.
After an eventful few days, I spent most of Sunday just hanging out at my apartment. And, of course, I was working on resumes and cover letters for the upcoming deadline OCI deadlines. However, I drove out to meet my friends in Bethesda in the evening, and we watched the United States Women’s Soccer Team beat Japan 5-2 in the 2015 FIFA World Cup Finals. It was a pretty quiet night, as we just ordered in wings and pizza, but watching Carli Lloyd score a hat trick in the first fifteen minutes of the game was plenty exciting! I could not think of a better way to wrap up Independence Day Weekend aside from having the a United States sports team be crowned the world champion squad.
In all, I had an amazing weekend. Although I was a little tired as I arrived back at NCSC’s Arlington office on Monday, I was happy to be able to experience a world-class 4th of July celebration in the capitol of the United States.