Guus Bosman

Monday was the 4th of July, Independence Day in the United States. Sasha and I both had a day off so we enjoyed a nice long weekend that we spent very well.

I came back from Puerto Rico late Friday evening. On Saturday we went to Georgetown. It was a beautiful day, so we walked from Court House across the Key Bridge to D.C. We spent the day walking around, looking in shops and having a good time. Of course we payed a long visit to Barnes & Nobles. We had coffee and read a bit but we restrained ourselves and didn't buy anything. I now feel the need to visit the library soon. Books are so addictive!

Saturday night we saw a movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, in the big Loews theater in Georgetown.

On Sunday we went to the central part of downtown D.C. On the Mall was the annual Smitsonian Folk Life festival, an event with information about many different cultures. There was a large delegation of Oman, and we had an Oman snack, bread with humus. We visited the American History museum and stayed till late in the city. Everywhere were preparations for the big day, July 4th.

Monday morning we went downtown again to see the Independence Day Parade. It was a large parade that took almost two hours and although it was very hot there was a large crowd. The group of Hare Krishna was especially interesting -- a huge cart was being pulled by 30 or 40 people.

Later we spend some time at a music festival and we had a very late lunch at home. We drank a beer from the Ommegang, a brewery in Cooperstown, NY that creates Belgium style beers. The beer that we had, Three Philosophers Quadrupel is a great blend of malty ale and lambic. It was an excellent beer -- definitely worth trying out the other beers from this brewery as well.

In the evening we saw a part of the movie Independence Day on TV, but at 20.00 o'clock we switched to WETA with life broadcasting from the Mall. The Beachboys, the O'Jays, Gloria Estafan... quite a selection. It was a very nice day, with a very pleasant, cheerful mood in the city, even though the security measures were strict and the day ended with an experiment to see how quickly downtown D.C. could be evacuated in case of an emergency.

We closed this great weekend on top of our building, where we had a good view of the spectacular fireworks at the Mall. It was a popular destination, and last week we had to request tickets to be allowed on the roof.

It was great to celebrate the fourth of July in Washington D.C. where the official national celebrations are held. President Bush by the way, celebrated in West Virginia. Last year we were in in Miami. In 1998 and 1999 we were also in the States on July 4th, but except for a barbecue in Antionio's we missed the national celebrations because we were working.