Virtual Vicarious Vacation Friday: July 4 Edition

I'm still struggling with the ending from hell (and the talk about happy endings was actually kind of a help there), but after a lot of pacing around the living room yesterday, I think I've got it all figured out and have even managed to visualize the next scene. It turns out that I made a rookie mistake: I had things happening because the plot needed them to happen, not because that's what the characters would have done. It took getting into each character's head and imagining what he/she would really do in that situation to see it all come together. So, guess what I'll be spending my holiday weekend doing? Aside from fireworks time, of course. The biggest show around here is tonight, so I'm looking forward to watching things blow up.

I imagine that with the economy in its current state, I'm not the only one without the money or time to take a summer vacation. Therefore, I'm instituting Virtual Vicarious Vacation Fridays, in which I'll share some of my travel photographs from past trips. I realized in digging up these photos that going freelance really cut into my travel, not so much because of the money and lack of paid vacation time, but because most of my travel was on business. All of these photos today were taken on business trips (I generally managed to extend my trips by volunteering to travel on the weekend, which cut the airfare). Today's virtual trip is an East Coast tour of patriotic sites, in honor of the holiday.

First, it wouldn't be Independence Day without fireworks, so here are fireworks over Boston, from July 4, 2000 (you get really cheap airfare if you travel on a holiday, and it goes up a lot if you travel around the holiday, so I got to spend July 4 in Boston).



Also in Boston, the old State House, complete with patriotic bunting.



Then there's Lady Liberty herself, the Statue of Liberty (taken from the Staten Island Ferry, October 1999 -- on trip for Internet World trade show).



And the National Mall, with the Washington Monument covered in renovation scaffolding (from summer 1999 -- I don't remember if this was the June trip or the early September trip).



I'll have to think about where we'll go next week. There's a lot to choose from. I've got a trip to Germany, which also included Luxembourg and Amsterdam, two trips to England, lots more Boston, New York and DC; Philadelphia, New Orleans, Chicago, Charleston and Colorado.