4th aftermath

I called her, Jared, since I knew she wouldn't see the blog on her birthday, being at Disneyland and all. I called her from the parade set up area.

It was cool being in the National Independence Day Parade as a balloon wrangler - I don't know that we'll ever do it again because of varying circumstances, but it was fun to do. No Clifford the Big Red Dog balloon - he did not show up for the day. We had an Uncle Sam top hat that is 16 feet tall, and there were 5 of us working on it. We were out there at 8:30 am, and inflated the balloon around 10:30. We used the balloon itself for shade while we waited. We were put into the lineup shortly after 12 (the parade had already started) and were on our way around 12:30. It took us probably 45 minutes to walk the 10 blocks of the parade route - we had a great spot. We were between a marching band and the bagpipes of a Scottish group. At the end, we helped deflate the balloon - the helium coming out was nice and cool, so I pointed the vents at my legs and arms. When all was said and done, we finished just after 2, and the parade itself was still going.

The weather was about as good as we could have asked for - it was hot but not very humid. It was definitely tolerable. It was made even more tolerable by the fact that parade staff and police were constantly on the move with cases and cases of water bottles, just handing them out. At the end of the route, there were kiddie pools full of ice as coolers for the water bottle. Those felt GOOD just putting them against your neck. Adam and I both got sunburned, I was getting a headache toward the end of the route, and we're pretty sore this morning. But it was fun.

We came home and showered again and took a nap, and then we went to the Iwo Jima memorial to watch the fireworks. It's a really great view of the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and the Capitol dome all right in a row. It was nice.

Happy birthday, USA and Mom!