Fireworks!

Eric and I started the Memorial Day weekend at Belle Haven, our normal Friday night meeting place. We were pleasantly surprised that evening when the "National Monstrosity" hosted a fireworks display, an event that seemed - from our side of the river - to be held solely for our own benefit.

The National Harbor is located directly across the Potomac River from our anchorage in Belle Haven and it lights up like an obscene Christmas tree at night. While the NH professes to be a marina, it is in fact a tourist attraction for land people with non-boat-related shops on shore, water taxi tours into DC, and a large convention center on site that hosts out-of-town visitors. While marine life does exist, it seems to be there for ambiance only.

A month or so ago, we called over to the NH to inquire about prices. We wanted to invite our families out to see the boat and thought it might make a good meeting place, a general location where everyone could come and go as they please. As we found out, the NH requires a reservation (even though they're relatively empty) and the cost per night is a cool $100 minimum. How pretentious is that! And what a shame that such a good idea turned out to be such a sterile contrived Disney Land ... but, in spite of the huge FAIL, they do a few things right, and the fireworks display was one of them.