Capital Fourth

Continuation


Old Glory

And so my parents, sister & I left Dallas in the early afternoon of the 4th. Our time in Addison with Jeanette was great, but our lives had to return back to normal. Since I had to work the next day, it wouldn't have been prudent to stay to watch more fireworks & then leave to drive back that night. Especially with my folks having to make the final leg of the trek well into early the next morning.

I got back to my apartment late that afternoon, and my parents and youngest sister soon left to go back to Houston. I was left without a plan for Independence day. After a little debate with myself, I eventually decided to go to the festivities at the George Bush library. I have lived in College Station for 3 years, and yet I have never been to the 4th of July celebration here. It's never drawn me to it.



Before and After

But there I was on the evening of the fourth. It was a nice crowd. Not as jam pack as the one I attended the day before in Addison. It had a more patriotic feel though at the Bush library. The rural populous tends to be more patriotic from my observation. There were no water fountains for kids to run around in, which was good entertainment the previous day. There is something about the sweet innocence at play that can make an adult's heart ache standing on the other end. A live band performed for the majority of the early evening. A good old Texas band. And they were then followed up by someone who would have made Molly's day, my friend's little girl.


concert at the library

Ladies & Gentlemen! All the way from from Memphis, Tennessee himself. The King! Elvis Presley! Yeah my heart didn't exactly skip a beat for that either.


Elvis is in the house. . . I mean field.

Elvis held up pretty well in our heat. But his voice was a little off key, and his swiveling hips might need some WD40. There was even an adoring fan who pseudo-swoon at the feet of the king. That was quite amusing. Afterwards an ochestra came out and performed some classical & jazz tunes. And they were fantastic.


Elvis has left the building.

The only disappointment was the actual fireworks display. The ochestra actually was playing during the display, but for some odd reason they stopped half-way through it. Perculier. And the fireworks had sporadic, unexplained lulls. Enough for people to think the display ended and it was time to leave. It was a funny sight seeing people leave, have the fireworks start again, and then having the crowd clamoring back to watch. The sad thing was it happened more than once. I actually did not even watch the finale because I was busy taking pictures.


Fireworks! Fireworks!

There are only a couple of places I'd like to be on Independence day in the future. Washington DC, NYC, & San Francisco. My favorite & best 4th of July experience has been in the city of Chicago, and my favorite time watching fireworks has been from a plane. After all was said and done, I had a wonderful Independence day weekend this year.