So after resting up at the hotel for a while, we headed back down to Benjamin Franklin Parkway to see if the WaWa Welcome America event was in full swing yet. There were many more people gathered & lots had started staking out their place on the medians & grassy areas.
A few new street performers were gathering some attention as the crowds were growing…
Who doesn’t love a beautiful garbage truck?
It was a scorcher! It was probably about 100 degrees & they’d opened a few fire hydrants to keep people cool.
We worked our way towards the main stage & people were starting to fill in the main roadway. We really enjoyed looking at all the different flags that lined the parkway & seeing how many we could identify.
They’d just set up some barricades, so we snagged a seat resting against a few of them and wait for the sun to go down….
My best friend, being a chemistry teacher, had made some of her own sparklers & we were giving them a whirl before it got too dark.
We were treated to a spectacular sunset, but we decided we were hungry & thirsty! There weren’t really many vendor options around & waaaay more people than there were place selling them.
We hiked through some rough crowds to a bar about half a mile away & killed some time before heading back to catch the end of the Goo Goo Dolls performance.
The fireworks weren’t scheduled to start until 10PM & we needed refreshments! I’m so glad I had a native tour guide to show us a place to chill out. By the way- I bought that necklace for Stephanie in Murano on our trip to Italy in 2005.
We made it back in time to catch the big fireworks extravaganza. I will say that many, many people had BYOB to the party & were highly intoxicated- like more than I’d ever seen in one place at one time! I guess (hopefully) most of them were taking public transportation home, because it was a nightmare getting out of the area with 100,000 other people who were on the parkway.
I only had my little P&S camera for the festivities & we had to rush from a our “stage view” seats to the “fireworks view” area once they started & we realized they were behind the museum.
GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: So glad we celebrated America’s birthday in one of the oldest & most historical places!
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