Although it rained intermittently during the day, the night ended with fireworks over the nation's capital.... sort of.

We began the day riding the Metro into the city early to hit the White House Visitor Center right after they opened. They were not too busy, and had a nice series of dsiplays about life in the White House for those of us who couldn't get admission to the House itself. We enjoyed the 10 minute video featuring all of the current living presidents speaking about their days in the White House, from move in day (it happens while the innauguration is taking place - they move out the old First Family and in with the new in just a few hours!) to their feelings of being in such an important position and residence. We also enjoyed one of the local colorful residents of DC who had managed to get past security - a very well dressed woman who drew our attention by sitting in one of the small seating areas in the center, talking to a fresh rose, giggling to herself, and drinking from a bottle of salad dressing.

At this point, we walked up to the White House itself so the kids could see it in daylight, then decided to get out of the drizzle by stopping into a little corner bakery restaurant for sandwiches. After lunch, we headed to the Mall.

Security near the Mall was very tight as we walked toward the American History Museum with police on most street corners and access to the central mall area secured, with the public not being allowed in to the fireworks viewing and concert areas until later in the afternoon. The line for the museum was out the door - maybe somethign about people wanting to see the Star Spangled Banner on 4th.... The line at the Museum of Natural History was much smaller, so we dived in there. The small line was deceptive. The museum was PACKED to the point that we couldn't get in to see much of anything, in part due to the festivities of the day and in part due to a steady rain that had begun to fall. Overwhelmed with the throng, we only spent maybe 30 minutes in there and left. Looking to get out of the masses, we left the Mall area and went back to the Metro station in the increasingly persistent rain, heading for Union Station so everyone could see that. Carrie remembered it from her first trip to DC as being much more like a mall than a train station, and that was still the case today.After wandering that site for a while, it didn't look good for fireworks so we reboarded the Metro for the ride back out to the campsite. Sarah was so disappointed about missing the fireworks that we made a last minute decision as the rain started to let up that we would take the Metro back into DC, hopefully just in time to see the fireworks.

As we exited the Archives Metro Station at 9:15, we could hear the boom of the explosions - they were already underway. Hurrying as fast as we could through the throngs of police and people (there really were officers at every street corner now), we finally found a vantage point a block away from the Mall where we managed to catch glimpses of the finale at 9:45 which also then put us into a decent position to be among the first to throng back to the Metro Station for the packed ride back to the car and finally to a night's rest.

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