My America 250 / Freedom 250 experience

Now that I've returned and settled down and read through some of the threads from a couple days ago, I'll share my experience for those interested...

I am happy and proud to have been there. Those who said it was a once in a lifetime thing and there will be lifetime memories made were correct. Most of those memories were amazing, but I'll also share the few bad ones too.

We started by heading to the Jefferson memorial where I knew there were hundreds of newly planted cherry trees with straps holding them up. We wanted a picture with one of those trees and the monument behind us, with hopes that our kids or grandkids could return years down the road and visit that same tree and retake that picture.

Then off to the state fair... I found it very enjoyable, but at the same time hard to really soak in and enjoy it the way it was intended to be enjoyed due to the heat. Cold water was free and you could always go and get as much as you wanted, including walking away with as much as you could carry. The crowds were respectable considering the heat. The pictures don't do it justice, as most people were inside the various tents at any given time. It's impossible to estimate the crowd size due to the sheer size of the national mall, and due to only being able to see small section at any given time depending on where you were standing. But I'd definitely say it was crowded. It was well done overall. The only real complaint from a production standpoint is the food prices.

The flyovers... wow! Incredible! I am not a jet guru. I didn't know which planes were which, but they were loud and freakin awesome! think on both Friday and Saturday I had a mild case of PTSD. I was hearing jets even when there weren't any around, and I'd flinch everytime I caught a bird flying by in my peripheral vision. You never knew where they were coming from, and they were buzzing by literally every few minutes. Sometimes just one, other times in formation, and other times performing stunts.

A Capitol fourth concert.... about what I expected. We had pretty good seats on the Capitol lawn. I enjoyed seeing the astronauts (which I saw again the next day, except this time from about 20' away). I also saw them a third time on the stage with Trump, but I dont count that one cause it was almost impossible to see from the distance.

Freedom 250 (Trump & Fireworks).... this is where things changed somewhat. The lines to get in reminded me of scenes at the superdome following Katrina. I'm not making light of that situation, as this was voluntary and we could have stepped away at any moment, unlike those people. But it was even hotter than they experienced, and every bit as crowded in those lines. Our line stretched from 14th st NW back to at least 7th st. DC doesn't have normal sized city blocks. 7 blocks in DC is a LONG way. There were hundreds of thousands between the four entrance points. I have no reason to believe the other three entrances were any different than ours at Constitution & 14th St NW. We waited for about 3 hrs. Peoples feet hurt, they were aggravated and on edge due to the heat, some were pushing and being pushed, people were drenched in sweat, and people were dropping due to the heat what seemed like every five minutes. You either had to deal with it, or give up the reason you went there. We fought through it and made it onto the grounds of the Washington monument. But make no mistake, when they say once in a lifetime, the key word there is ONCE. Looking back on it, I believe I put myself and my family in a potentially unsafe situation. Fortunately nothing happened.

Then we got kicked out due to weather. Like 90% of the crowd, we were in no mood to leave. We watched across the lawn as some people got rowdy and we watched secret service and national guard sprint toward them to calm things down. It felt like an "incident" could have erupted at any moment. We kept our distance from the disturbances as best we could while trying to delay our exit. I had no doubt they'd be letting people back in soon, so I was in no rush. Needless to say, we were forced to leave eventually. What pissed people off is that during the evacuation, the flyovers continued. It wasn't safe enough for us to sit on the lawn, but it was apparently okay to continue an air show. It didn't make sense. I realize war doesn't stop in bad weather, and those planes were perfectly capable of flying.... but this was an air show. I still can't figure that one out.

Once out, we waited near the African American history museum. We had a light drizzle at best, which felt great combined with the sun finally going down. At 9:45 the gate reopened. We had already positioned ourselves in that god awful line again, well before then. We were dedicated to the cause. But this was not for the weak or faint of heart. You had to want it. And this is why we were there. It was hard seeing the look on my family faces at times. I was legit sorry for putting them through that. But like a few hours earlier, we fought through it and got in a second time. We returned to our original spot about 30 feet in front of the Washington monument ring of flags. We spread our beach blanket just in time to hear C Maccio sing, followed by Lee Greenwood, and then President Trump. Trump said 150,000 people returned. Well, that may have been the number when he started his speech. But I can tell you with 100% certainty there were at least 3x that many who were still in line and still pouring in during his speech. Everyone had to go through security screening. Twice for many of us.

Fireworks.... again, wow! Absolutely incredible! Pictures, videos, or tv can never do it justice. That curtain of fireworks behind the stage was a mile wide on the Potomac River. Additionally there was the entire length of the reflecting pool lined with fireworks.

In spite of the few negatives, I am glad we did this. It was incredible to see so many people gathered in that setting, on that day, and all proud to be there. The miserable lines always seemed to have large groups of strangers singing the national anthem together, or take me home country roads. I was fully impressed at the secret service and national guard ability to maintain their professionalism, and even their politeness in such a situation. They were likely hotter than we were and even more aggravated.

Lifetime memories were indeed created.