Before the fireworks began their computer-synchronized explosions over the Langley High School football field, families gathered to play games, eat picnic dinners and enjoy the warm Fourth of July afternoon.
"I'm happy to have the best weather we've ever had for our Fourth of July celebration," said Peggy Moore, volunteer coordinator for the McLean Community Center, which sponsored the event.
New for this year's celebration was a performance by the Navy Commodore jazz band, which had performed the day before at the Community Center as part of their summer concert series.
Additionally, Games People Play II provided activities for children of all ages, ranging from a water balloon toss and three-legged races to a moon bounce and Human Gyroscope ride.
The meaning of the holiday was not lost in the colorful, noisy gathering of thousands of McLean residents, however.
"I'm terribly patriotic," Moore said. "I love to see all the kids out there waving their flags and talking to their neighbors. You come to McLean and everyone knows each other ... this event is so small-town."
Co-sponsoring the event at a table across the sidewalk, Jack McMahon and Mary Kingman from the American Legion Post 270 in McLean were preparing to hand out American Flags and sell magnetic yellow ribbons in support of troops serving overseas.
"The magnets are a means of raising funds for our young people who aren't veterans themselves but maybe their fathers or grandfathers were," McMahon said. "The purpose of the magnets is, really, politics be damned, we should support our young people who volunteer to go overseas. They don't have to be there, they volunteer to go."
As chair of the Post's Americanism committee, McMahon said he enjoyed going to the celebration because he likes seeing "families all come out together. This is a great place to educate kids about the flag and patriotism. You'll see people from all over the world here tonight, and no matter where they're from, they'll stand when they play the Star Spangled Banner."
CROSSING THE RIVER from Potomac, Md., to enjoy the festivities, Ginny Fowler said it was an easier trip to McLean than to Gaithersburg or Rockville to celebrate the Fourth of July with her family.
"My kids have already done the human hamster wheel and the gyro. We're having a great time," Fowler said, referring to one of the activities for smaller children, getting inside a giant, inflatable, plastic ball and walking through a small obstacle course.
Her four children attend school in McLean and have friends and family in here as well, so the choice to attend the festivities was an easy one.
"This is good, clean, family fun," she said. "They do a great job with everything here."
With her daughter, son-in-law and grandson visiting from Portland, Ore., Dottie Newman brought her family out to the celebration at Langley High School.
"They heard it was fun and wanted to enjoy the time together," Newman said. "There's a lot here for my grandson to do. The whole thing is very family-geared, which is appreciated," she said.
"This is such an intimate affair as opposed to what's going on down near the Capitol," her daughter, Pat Griffiths said. "I'm expecting it'll only take us 15 minutes to get out of here later tonight instead of sitting in traffic for hours downtown."
With another daughter in the Navy and being a retired military person herself, Newman said she was looking forward to hearing the Commodores perform, while Griffiths was impressed with McLean in general.
"My son was in a little neighborhood parade this morning where my mother lives and had a great time," she said. "We feel like we live here."
In contrast to the waterfront festivities in Portland, Griffiths said she likes the "strong sense of community" at the Langley event.
"We don't have anything like this in Portland. There's a different feel to things here," she said.