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Small party with friends who own a houseboat on the Potomac!

Ooooh that sounds fun!

Staying home, watching fireworks across the lake.

Yes, I have "braved" the crowds on the National Mall watching fireworks when I lived in DC...almost every year I did so until I moved to the SW Waterfront area.

The best views bar none...from the boardwalk along the Potomac Channel, which passes by the Harbor Patrol, the cruise boats, the houseboats (did that too) all the way to the Tidal Basin...and from the rooftop gardens of the waterfront condos and co-op buildings...all walking distance without the crowds.

In my co-op building on the waterfront, friends would BEG us months before to let them come up to our rooftop gardens on the Fourth.

I sure do miss seeing them now that I live in a small town in Texas...Oh, well...

My building has a rooftop deck so I'll be viewing from there and have invited a couple of friends.

I haven't done the mall yet, but have done Hains Point. It's a good spot to take in the fireworks from the National Mall.

I plan on going out downtown Jacksonville, FL and getting trashed (because I never do!!!), wandering the crowds and getting that wonderful feeling that being with a huge group of people looking at the exploding sky gives me.

birdablaze....I spent many years watching the fireworks at the Jsx beaches. I never saw the ones downtown. (Yeah....we were all trashed too!)

Full plans on staying home and relaxing. Fireworks are banned in the apartment complex, so I know I won't hear them screeching right beside the apartment. Last year I was with a friend where we were shooting off fireworks mostly to entertain her three year old son. Nothing can make him laugh harder than seeing his mommy running around like a clown with sparklers - LOL.

I refuse to face the crowds where they are shot off (it's always been from the top of the tallest bank building downtown in Indianapolis) - the crowds hit every single park within a some many mile radius. It never is a good time - just a bunch of drunken idiots.

I think the funniest thing ever was the free view from a house my parents rented when I was younger. If you stood on the pool deck (above ground pool) and looked towards downtown, you could see them perfectly. Granted the house was probably ten mins from downtown.

In Arlington, I was really lucky to live in a building with DC views. You could watch from the rooftop, but I was also lucky to work with the police, so I volunteered for the special details. Nothing beats shutting down 395 and watching from the middle of that road, or having the firefighters share their truck!

A few years later, (when I had met my sweetie) we went to Gravelly Point. We thought we'd share a leisurely picnic and wait for the crowds to disperse. We were shocked as cops started driving through the park with spotlights and loudspeakers: "Please leave immediately!" We'd forgotten the evacuation drills!

The next year, we braved the mall itself. We packed a simple picnic and listened to the bands, and then meandered home by walking an extra mile or so to a further out stop.

Good times, any way it's done. And memories like these make me want to move back to the metro area to "go home" once again!

I don't think anyone needs to be afraid of Mall events. I have always found the "crowds" reasonable. Just avoid the very nearest Metro stations after the fireworks.