July 4 in DC!

What better way to spend the birthday of a nation than in its capital?! I've heard the NYC fireworks are amazing, but seeing the Washington monument in the glow of fireworks exploding behind it was like a live postcard in front of me.

I have better quality pictures on my SLR but am too lazy to upload those right now 

We started the day with watching the rainy Coney Island hot dog eating contest on TV. The eight-time defending champion won again, eating 61 hot dogs in 10 minutes — eight fewer hot dogs than last year, apparently. Your own favorite vegetarian/health nut here could hardly watch it. ESPN reports that the 61 hot dogs equated to 23,790 calories, 1,189.5 grams of fat and 60,390 milligrams of sodium. That's in 10 minutes, let me remind you. Excuse me while I gag in the corner...

Then we watched World Cup games until the fireworks, basically. The subway ride home was another highlight of the day, because I convinced a random Irish man to share his block of cheese with me and my friends.

Sasha enjoyed it

Ben and Zeena, not so much

On Saturday we all slept in and then again spent most of the day watching World Cup games. Ellie and I made an expedition to Chipotle for lunch, and in the afternoon I spent a lovely hour or two reading Harry Potter in a park.

That evening we grilled out (yay for black bean burgers!) and later went to a really cool bar in Arlington with a huge outdoor patio. Apparently I like outdoor things, who knew!

On Sunday Ellie and I went to brunch with a couple of other girls from Duke before I caught my 2 p.m. bus back to NYC. It was an incredibly fun Fourth weekend in DC, and I loved catching up with all the friends I made on my Semester Switch at Duke! Another fun thing was that I got to meet a lot of Maxwell alumni, whom I'm sure I'll see again if only at the Maxwell-in-DC party next July 4th :)