4th of July weekend

The last two days have been busy, crazy, and very tiring. On top of that, I became sick Friday morning, so all of the fun was slightly dimmed by that.
Friday I thought I would stay home and just relax until the fireworks later that night. I had gone to the Mall on Thursday, so I didn't think there would be a lot I would want to see. But unfortunately, I woke up at 6, and by 7 i was out of bed. One of the few days I could sleep as long as I wanted, and my body wouldn't let me. That was annoying. So I got up and watched 21 Jumpstreet, which is Johnny Depp's first appearance on television, and he plays a completely different character than he does these days. He's actually a good, straight-laced cop. But I digress, I was watching the show, and when my roommates started to get ready to go watch the reading of the Declaration of Independence, I figured this would be my only 4th in the capitol, so I should experience as much as I could. So I went to the reading with two roommates and another girl from Utah. The reading was cool and I got to see the Fife and Drum Corps. I even stayed for the first hour of the parade. Since I have been in parades in high school and college, they aren't that cool to me. Just hot, and somewhat boring. I now understand why my dad wasn't a big fan of them. Anyway, we left after an hour and tried going to the Mall, but there was a long line waiting to go through security. So we ended up going home. We had been at the Archives from about 9am-1pm, so I was outside for 4 hours. Luckily the sun wasn't out the entire time, and it actually sprinkled a little bit. But after 4 hours, my skin had a nice red hue. It doesn't really hurt, unless you put a lot of pressure on it, so it's not the worst burn I've ever had. When we got back home, we ended up watching She's the Man. I didn't have anything better to do, so I sat and watched.
Friday night was an experience. I really wanted to go to the concert that they have on the Capitol lawn every year. Huey Lewis & the News and Jerry Lee Lewis was going to be there, neither of which I've seen live, and they play the 1812 overture when the fireworks start to go off. Unfortunately, people had gone the night before for the dress rehearsal, and nobody wanted to go. Since I was spending the night at Richard's house because we were leaving early to go to Gettysburg, I had everything packed for what I would need. And I had invited my roommate Virinia to come along since there was another spot. I figured since I had access to a car to experience some of the cool stuff of the East Coast, I should share the wealth. So I told her I was going to the concert, and I thought she understood that I was going to the Capitol Building. So we get to the Capitol Building, and she thought we were going to the Washington Monument. I was a little upset, but I told her I was staying at the concert and she could go on if she wanted to. I love Huey Lewis and the News, and they played three songs, two of which i knew. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty hard for the first part of the show (which was only 90 minutes long), so I was standing under my umbrella since I didn't bring anything to sit on. The concert was pretty good. I had fun, and as soon as Jerry Lewis finished "Great Balls of Fire" I, with a lot of other people, started leaving so we could get a good spot to watch the fireworks. I even did a little bit of running so I could clear the trees and have a good view of the Washington Monument and the fireworks. I got some great shots.

My hand moved, but I think it looks cool

The fireworks lasted 17 minutes (some random person I was talking to while in line for the bathroom told me that), which wasn't very long. I was disappointed in the show. But it was raining, and I'm sure there were malfunctions, so it was pretty good considering the weather.
After the fireworks stopped I walked all the way over to the Washington Monument to meet up with Virinia so we could meet Richard at the Vienna stop. We walked to the Federal Triangle metro stop, which was jam packed on both levels with people trying to get on the metro. Because of that, we decided to walk to the Arlington metro stop, which was in Virginia. We probably walked for at least a half hour, if not more, and I was so exhausted. I was walking and standing outside in the morning, and I stood through all of the concert, and I had already walked at least a mile going across the mall. So walking to Arlington, and with a somewhat heavy backpack on, was very tiring. I was not a happy person. Virinia tried to be a speed demon, but there was no way I was walking at her pace. My everything hurt, and my feet were tired and starting to cramp b/c I was doing so much walking in sandals in rain and wet areas. I swear crossing the Potomac took forever!! It seemed like it was never going to end. I wanted to sit down and relax, but Virinia had this that we would be mugged or something. I didn't really care at that point, but I dutifully kept walking. We didn't have long to wait at the Arlington metro, or when we transferred at the Rosslyn metro. We got to Richard's a little after midnight. We got ready for bed, and the lights were out by one. But because I was sick, I didn't exactly sleep well.
Can I tell you how much I hate getting up early?!? Because I really don't. I set my alarm for 5:45, because Richard wanted to be gone by 6:15. We wanted to make the most of our day, so I couldn't blame him. But getting up was not fun. We left a little later than planned, but we managed to pick up Rachel and be in Gettysburg by 9:00am.
Gettysburg was beautiful.

It was an overcast day, and it made the quiet town/park seem like it was getting ready for battle. There were even fields that had fog over them. It was beautiful. The fact that I was also burnt meant my skin would want to kill me, which was nice. We started out doing the auto tour. Richard bought a CD tour, and we were on our way. We managed to get through the first three or four spots before we headed over to where they were doing the reenactments. We got to the battle late, but we watched most of the cavalry battle before heading back to doing the tour. We got up through 12 (of 16) spots before we ate lunch and then went back to the reenactments to watch another battle. The place we stopped at didn't have the best food, but they had great ice cream. Anyway, we got back to the battle at 5, and we stuck around till about 7:30. At that point Rachel and I were exhausted. Me being sick, and needing to keep hydrated in a muggy climate wasn't working out so well. So we left and finished the tour. . . .almost. The one place I wanted to go to most, the Gettysburg Soldier Cemetery, closed at dusk. We didn't finish the last spot on the tour till just after dusk. I was disappointed, but there was nothing I could do about that one.
So the drive home commenced. Luckily I had shotgun, so I slept most of the way back. I would have traded someone for the back, but I didn't want to spread whatever bug I have. Being sick, especially during the summer isn't fun. I was so tired. I was very excited to get back home. I needed a good night's sleep. I wanted to get over whatever it is I have (which, it turns out I got from Richard, who said it passes after a few days), and I was hoping a good night's sleep would help with that. I kind of got a good night's sleep . . . I woke up at 6 again, but I forced myself back to sleep till 9. I think I got about 8-9 hours of sleep. I still feel nasty, but I'll just be relaxing at home all day trying to get over the bug.