National Mall

Fourth of July Parade

We have a full day planned on the National Mall. First, we went to the NationalMuseum of American History. Only a little over half the museum is open, they’ve been remodeling since the last time we were here (when it was closed). We went through the America at War exhibit (we’ve seen a lot of this during our trip already), the African America exhibit celebrating 150 years since the Emancipation Proclamation and 50 years since the Civil Rights Encounters of the 60s’.
We took a break before lunch and watched the 4^th of July parade, just outside the museum. Lots of bands, but they seemed to stretch the parade out quite a bit.  After lunch, we saw the key highlights of the museum: The Presidents, the First Ladies, and the Star Spangled Banner. Then out on the Mall was the Smithsonian Folk Life Festival. Hungarian crafts, dance, and food was just outside the museum. The crowds were thick, leaving just a few single chairs here and there to sit and watch the dancing. But it was interesting watching the craftsmen work especially some of the woodcutters. It didn’t take long for us to get overly hot in the 90 degree heat, so we went on the National Museum of Natural History, which was packed with people. We went immediately to the gem exhibit – the necklace worn by Marie Antoinette was particularly spectacular as well as a huge aquamarine stone. We explored the insect world from butterflies to leaf cutter ants to all sorts of insects disguised as leaves. Then on to mammals, where we found a few new ones, we had never seen before. We ate at the museum and rested our weary legs for a while. Then we hiked down the mall to the Capital, it took almost an hour to get through security for the Capital Fourth Concert. We arrived too late for a direct view of the stage, but we could see the giant monitor above the stage and hear the concert quite well. Barry Manilow, Neal Diamond, and John Williams conducting music from the recent movie “Lincoln” were the featured artists but they also had a variety of folks from American Idol and America’s got Talent.


Then came the fireworks with the bands playing Sousa Marches, and the 1812 Overture among others. Our view was somewhat obscured by the trees, but anything that went above the Washington monument was clearly in sight. Chalk up a bucket list item – we now done the National Mall on the Fourth of July.