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After the emotional and very busy past week or so, we all needed some down time. Kenny was staying with us for a while, since Mike and Amira had to return to Los Gatos and their respective jobs. The kids spent most of the first few days in the pool at the campground -- often underwater, as you can see from the photo below, courtesy of Joya. As you can also see, the kids all invested in masks, which they enjoyed greatly. This is Jordan, Merwoman of the Capitol KOA campground. 
And Joya, in a brief above-the-water appearance.
Ditto for Kenny -- when this was taken, he had just bobbed up for air as he went up and down and up and down and...
On Monday, we drove back to Annapolis to take Kevin a care package. There aren't too many plebes who are vegetarians and there was some concern about him getting enough protein (which turned out to be accurate). So we brought him some veggie jerky, Pringles and some letters from all of us. It turns out he had to eat meat just to get enough food and was hungry a lot. We also went to see "A.I.", the movie. None of us particularly liked it, but it was a science fiction film which means Doug HAS to see it. Our other big activity during this time was to get into Washington D.C. for the 4th of July festivities on the mall. We first changed campgrounds, about a 1 hour drive to Greenbelt National Park, and considerably cheaper than the KOA. Our new campground was about 10 minutes from the gigantic Greenbelt "Kiss and Ride" metro parking lot, which still had plenty of room at 3:00 PM or so on the day of the 4th. It was quite warm and humid out -- typical eastern summer day. The girls cooled off a bit by resting their feet in a fountain near the National Archives, where we found that the line to view the documents which founded our country -- the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution -- as I was saying, the line to view these documents was over 3 hours long. We kinda wanted to see them, since they were to be removed from display for 2 years for renovation and conservation. But we did not want to see them so badly that we would wait in line for three hours, so we walked on to the mall, which was already teeming with folk wandering about, listening to music, or picnicking.
After setting down our blankets way too near a really bad Christian rock band, we all opted to wander down towards the Capitol, we had heard that a free concert was being staged. On the way, we encountered a "faire" of sorts put on by a group calling itself "The Twelve Tribes". After some polite inquiries, we discovered a bit about them; they are a Christian religious sect with heavy Hebrew influences. They believe in living a simple, uncluttered and righteous life, and that when everyone on the planet lives as they do, Christ will come again and take us all to heaven. However odd their dogma, they all seemed polite, energetic, happy and committed. They were not especially interested in "recruiting" new members, so we actually had to dig a bit to find out what they were all about. Very interesting. We finally made it to the vicinity of the Capitol, and wedged ourselves a spot on the lawn. Our view of both the stage and the huge TV screen over the stage were partially blocked -- explaining why we were able to find a spot in the first place. Here we are, all set and waiting for the concert to start.
And here is the view about 30 minutes later -- a serious thunderstorm had begun. Most of us thought it would quickly blow over, as most of these storms seem to do. Wrong. It rained almost the entire concert, although the temperature stayed warm. The kids rushed the stage and just hung out, getting sopping wet -- but it was a blast. We saw the Irish Tenors, the Pointer Sisters, The Fifth Dimension, Susan Anton and several others I can't remember, including an opera soprano and a country singer. A little bit of everything, including the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. We had a great time, and were exhilarated by the whole thing. Of course, the show ended with a grand fireworks show that lasted more than 30 minutes.
We took to subway out of the heart of Washington D.C., along with the other 200,000 or so souls who were down on the mall. Here are the girls, dripping wet -- but no wetter than any of the other occupants.
The next day, back at Greenbelt, the kids discovered that the bug situation was pretty fierce, so they donned camouflage mosquito netting to help keep their faces and heads bite-free. Jordan tried to eat with hers on, with predictably poor results.
That night, since we had not had a chance to light our small stash of sparklers -- purchased several states earlier -- we had a short little sparkler party. It was short because not only did we only have 4 sparklers, but also because a man in a park ranger truck pulled up and nicely informed us that fireworks of all types were completely forbidden in Maryland, and any such infringement was punishable by a fine of about $1000. This was sobering news indeed. He got on the radio, and after a very long time told us that the park ranger would be paying us a visit soon. This confused us a bit, since he was wearing a National Parks Service uniform and driving a NPS truck, but we thought, hey, whatever. He did come by after an hour or two, and just gave us a warning; in fact, he as much as told us that he had some of his own fireworks that he was going to light when he was off work -- but he clearly was not going to be caught doing so. This marked the second occasion where I was nearly arrested and/or fined for illegal fireworks. I can only hope there is no third.
Later that same night, to continue the lively pyrotechnic spirit we had started earlier, Jody presented Jordan and Kenny with their own box of matches, to do with as they wished. Kenny thought he had died and gone to heaven. He is not screaming in pain in the picture below -- that is some kind of maniacal laugh. Only God and Jordan know why she was wearing a face mask, and neither were telling. (Actually, Jordan is trying to avoid smoke going in her eyes.) We thought that this particular picture really captured the essences of their respective personalities.
On our way to the coast, we dropped one more care package off at the Naval Academy. This time we included protein bars and soy nuts and Nutella. Then it was over the bridge and out to the Barrier Islands...
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