Happy Birthday, America!

Today is Independence Day. Here in DC it was, for the most part, uneventful. Having been here for a few weeks and, having already seen the monuments and the sights, my dorm-mates and I decided to lay low rather than to brave the masses who had come to see them. There were all sorts of displays, and hippie marches, and concerts to enjoy. Unfortunately, it had rained on and off all day. We became a bit skeptic as to whether or not the fireworks would go off as the rain continued on into the evening. It looked as though it would be the fourth time in five years the fireworks would be pushed back due to weather.

Just after nine o'clock, JB, one of my dorm-mates and I were just sort of bummin' around trying to decide what to do for the evening when we were interrupted by the first couple of booms. We looked at each other surprised, scrambled to grab our cameras, jumped in the elevator, and trotted down the street to find a good spot from which to take pictures. We found a decent view right across from the State Department building just down the road from us. The show lasted about thirty minutes-plenty of time for me to play around with the settings on our camera and try some different things and get some good shots. I took nearly three hundred photos in about 20 minutes. These happen to be the best of the bunch.