You just can’t beat the fourth of July in the capital. The patriotic feeling 
you get when you walk around downtown and see the Eisenhower Executive Office Building decorated with American flags, inside and out, reading about what’s going on in the city during that weekend as tourists flock to DC, and being around powerful politicians is something that is indescribable, but I can be dramatizing a bit. I was warned by the local papers not to go to the national mall for the fourth as I would end up being surrounded by slow tourists on the metro while simultaneously regretting my decision, but yet, that’s where everyone I knew was going, partly to watch Darren Criss perform. Technically, we’re all tourists in DC for the summer, no matter how much I try to convince myself that I’m a local since I’ve lived in the city for about two months then.
Ultimately, I decided against staying. Fortunately, I lived in Philly, a three-hour bus ride from DC, so I could go home whenever I wanted, unlike other interns whose homes were in California, Illinois, and Texas. Since the fourth fell on a Thursday, I decided to take Friday off as well and extend my stay and make my trip worth it for the four-day weekend. In Philly, being America’s birthplace, there was an the annual Party of the Parkway going on, which was basically a huge free concert with food vendors and entertainment, and of course fireworks at the end. I personally thought that this concert was overrated, but I could just be saying that because I take it for granted having lived in Philly my entire life. Although a lot of Philadelphians I knew were headed there for the fourth, my family and I decided to go to the beach, spend the day there and watch fireworks on the sand. I though dealing with sand would be much better than dealing with rowdy people. I was somewhat disappointed that I was missing John Mayer, Neyo, and J. Cole perform at the concert with Kevin Hart as the host, but I always appreciated leaving the city.
Once at the beach with family friends, I did what I normally do: feel how cold (and rarely, how warm) the water is, step away, sit on the sand, walk along the water staying a mere two inches away from it, and sit again. I was never the kind of person that’ll jump into the water no matter what temperature it is. Don’t get me wrong; I love swimming! I just value me being warm and not shivering so much more. After that, we had a mini-photo shoot with the beach as the background, walked along the Atlantic City boardwalk, which is always bustling with people, and again, tourists, window shopped at all the small, boardwalk stores we passed, and walked through the carnival there. Once it was 9:00pm, we went back on the sand and watched a mediocre fireworks show. I can’t say I was impressed.
A cook-out is a must for any kind of fourth of July celebration. Since we didn’t BBQ on the beach, we decided to go to a state park about three hours from home, and have it there. Ricketts Glen State Park had a lake that was open to the public and a bunch of waterfalls, the perfect way to cool off in 90-degree weather. This time, I actually decided to swim, not because the lake didn’t have sharks, but because it was a lake and much warmer than an ocean. After swimming and eating, we decided to go check out the waterfalls, which would be a 1.5 mile hike. This might seem simple, but when you factor in that I was wearing flip flops, there were little kids with us, and it was almost sunset, it doesn’t sound all that easy anymore. However, after hiking up and down for about 20 minutes, we got to the first waterfall, which was beautiful. After admiring it and having another photo shoot, we decided to head back before it was too dark and anything dangerous came out. All in all, I had a pretty good weekend and got some family quality time in there.
