Happy Birthday America!

Today was definitely beautiful. It was full of sights, museums, and of course fireworks. We had a late start to the day, but it was okay because we had a late night the night before. We met downstairs around 9 for breakfast. We ate at the hotels' breakfast restaurant which was a really cool buffet style place. I had an omelet with a buttermilk pancake with hot chocolate. It was a nice breakfast to add onto our morning conversation. After eating, we decided to go to Whole Foods in order to buy our lunch ahead of time because there would be no shops around the White House to get our lunch later on. Also, we wouldn't want to miss out on great seats for the fireworks.

We caught the bus over to the White house and took some great pictures. We also got to watch some amazing performers and marching bands. I also waved at Ms. Maryland (which was pretty cool.) The parade was cool for the most part but got repetitive after a while. It was nice seeing the marching band the most because I empathized with how much of their hard work goes in to a performance. They must have been so talented to be able to play for the parade. I put myself in their shoes and I knew that it would have been so nerve wracking to perform such a huge event. Overall, the parade was a special lifetime opportunity for me. Here are some of my favorite moments from the parade. 

She waved at me

Seeing the White House was cool 

I would have gone in but I forgot the keys at home

In Mannix we trust

After the parade, we visited two museums; the Holocaust Museum and the Museum of Space and Flight. The Holocaust museum was humbling as well as enlightening. I learned different perspectives of the Holocaust that I never would have learned in class. For example the only perspective of the Holocaust that I've ever learned was Anne Frank's. Not that it is a bad thing, but I believe that our schools should do a better job of making sure that students are getting different outlooks from different people. The Museum of Space and Flight was more lighthearted. Carson, Shanti, Jasmine and I spent most of our time talking to each other than we did looking at all the artifacts. We bonded for about 30 minutes. I got to see different views of the earth from different heights which I thought was pretty cool. It's amazing how far we've come with cameras and technology in general. 

Chillin' with the Wright Bros

After visiting museums, we all walked to see as many memorials as possible. the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial was the best in my opinion. His memorial stood tall and proud just like his personality and character when he led the civil rights movement. I also really liked the Korean War memorial because it made it me think. I don't really know much about the war, but the memorial made me want to research and find out for myself. 

We all walked around a bit to be able to find all the memorials. Here are a couple of my favorite pictures throughout the day that I think captured the great vibe of the whole experience. 

The best part of the whole day was the fireworks. After visiting all that we could in DC, we were finally able to settle down and view the fireworks. The only firework show that I've been to was one in my town, and it was not even comparable to the fireworks in DC. It was so grand and the everyone was cheering and clapping. It brought a sense of community within all 5000,000 (about) people there to experience it. I ablsolutely loved it and there is definitely no way this could have happened without Mr. Mannix, Charles Ramsey, Ms. Kronenberg, and of course Don. Thank You!

I was messing around with my camera...and this happened