After Storms Burst in Air, Mall Fireworks Pop on Cue

Canadian army Sgt. Darryl Parenteau stood by the entrance of an exhibit on arctic tents designed to keep soldiers toasty in subzero temperatures. He said he was getting tired of the incessant jokes about the heat from passersby. "It's like every two minutes," he said.

Crowds poured into the Mall area, with the usual confusion. Overheard eastbound on the Orange Line, between Foggy Bottom and Farragut West:

"Do you know where we're supposed to get off?"

"Federal Triangle. You know, like the Bermuda Triangle. Everything gets lost in there."

"Yeah, like my taxes."

Parades, Protesters

Cpl. Robert Goosey of Farmington, N.M., said the morning parade on Constitution Avenue was especially moving for him because it reminded him of friends from his battalion who hadn't come back from Iraq. In February, he returned from a 13-month tour stationed northeast of Baghdad. Seven members of his battalion died, which was weighing heavily on his mind.

"I was glad that I got to come home and see it. It's something else knowing that everyone here cares," he said. He sat with his family on the grass near the Washington Monument anticipating the fireworks.

Familiesdoused themselves with bottled water to escape the sun. They forked over $2 for a snow cone or orange vanilla cream bar, a burst of cool vapor escaping with every lift of the ice cream cart lid.

"We have some people with heat exhaustion, and it's mostly the elderly and some of the kids in the [marching] bands," said Officer Mario Guarin, a liaison with the D.C. police department.

Two antiwar protesters were arrested for disrupting the Constitution Avenue parade, police and protesters said. Geoffrey Mallard, 25, a disabled veteran from Iraq, and Chloe Jon-Paul, 71, were arrested by U.S. Park Police officers. Mallard and Jon-Paul were part of the Code Pink antiwar protest. Mallard walked onto the parade route and attempted to join the march, said Meada Benjamin, Code Pink's co-founder.

"He really felt that he had earned the right to walk in the parade," Benjamin said. About a dozen police officers on motorbikes and several more on horseback came to stop Mallard, Benjamin said. That's when Jon-Paul walked onto the route to stop them and defend Mallard. Both were arrested and were expected to be released later in the day, Park Police officers said. Benjamin called the arrests "a tragically ironic moment."

"I just thought how terrible it was that a veteran who earned the right to march was not allowed," she said.