Many of you have been patient with me in getting to the story and pictures of the inauguration. First let me say that we had an awesome time there and are so glad that we made the decision to go. It was truly a momentous occasion, as evidenced by the attendance of 1-2 million people who joined us in welcoming (thankfully) our new Democratic president. The entire time we spent in D.C. we felt an air of happiness, thankfulness, and joy. There was not one incident where we saw anyone pushing or shoving, yelling, or otherwise being boisterous in a bad way. It was quite the opposite, and with that many people, I think that is saying something. Everyone who was there was ready for a change, you could feel it, and I must say that there were people of all ages and backgrounds together, helping each other out.
We arrived on Sunday night and immediately went to Arlington National Cemetery so that we could park more easily and then take the metro into D.C. There was a concert starting at 2:30 that afternoon with over 15 performers, including Beyonce, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, and we arrived at 4 pm, so thought we had tons of time. As it turned out, after our metro ride in (which the kids just love) we were arriving at just the time the concert let out, around 4:30. That was quite a bummer. We were sure that it would last for several hours, not just 2. So we missed that, and were hugely outnumbered by the waves of people coming toward us headed to metro stops. We quickly did an about face and headed back to the cemetery. It wasn't a total loss, though, as we did get to walk up and down some cool streets and see a lot of the buildings that the kids enjoy. The National Guard and lots of police from other cities were on every street corner, trying to herd people onto the sidewalks (that was a losing battle with probably 1/2 a million people coming towards them) and let some cars through. We did get back to Arlington Cemetery and then headed over to Wendy's apartment, which is a short 10 minute drive from there. We were all happy to see her although she has only been gone for a few weeks. Potter, Molly and Caleb always like trips because of 1) traveling in the car and 2) staying in hotels. Wendy's apartment isn't a hotel, but she does live on the 10th floor of her building and we had to park in an underground garage and then take the elevator up. She also has a balcony overlooking I-66 and you can see the metro above ground from there. So all in all, they were happy with their accomodations. The kids were dog tired, so we had dinner and then all went to bed.
Monday was Martin Luther King Day, and we decided that we'd try to hit a couple museums that day and just walk around D.C. The metro ride in was much more crowded, and the other people on the metro were so concerned about our kids and keeping them from getting crushed that they would put their arms out and shout as others got on 'we got kids here, watch out!' And it was like that everywhere, people just helping out. And with three kids, we needed it, even though we had Wendy with us, there is a lot of stuff to take with kids and we had a stroller and a baby backpack too. Security in the museums loved us!! :) First we walked around to where the observation station was for President Obama to watch the parade. We could get fairly close to it and take some pictures. Right about then it started to snow lightly and it was such a beautiful scene to be there with these crowds of happy people in sort of a picturesque place. After that, we decided to get in touch with a couple students from BU. BU has a program that sent 2 kids from Poly Sci to D.C. for 10 days to be a part of the inauguration, so we met up with those students, Dylan and Whitney, who Dave knows well, and hung out with them for most of the day at the museums. We first went to the Museum of American History which has reopened just last fall. The trains and transportation modes were a big hit with Caleb and Molly mostly liked standing inside this old fashioned elevator and pushing all the buttons. Was hard to get her out of that. We ended up eating a really late lunch there and then headed over to the Museum of Natural History to see the dinosaurs, Hope Diamond, and the huge elephant in the main entry way. Always cool to see that stuff. By then, it was meltdown time, so we decided to head back to Arlington and relax that night. Dylan and Whitney came over later for an inauguration party/dinner and we hung out, had some drinks and the kids played. I must back up and say for a bit how much the kids just stuck like glue to Dylan and Whitney the entire day.....the rest of us could have disappeared and they wouldn't have noticed, so having them over to Wendy's apartment was huge for them!!
Inauguration day we knew we needed to get our act together early and head into town. All bridges were closed to cars, and it is a little too far to walk from Arlington to D.C. so we once again had to brave the metro to get there. It was PACKED PACKED PACKED and I can't emphasize that enough!!! We did make it in, and found ourselves in front of a jumbo-tron right next to the Washington Monument. We stayed there, in really cold and windy weather, for the entire ceremony. It was amazing!! Everyone around us happy and jubilant, when the pastor gave the opening prayer, you could hear 1 million plus people all saying the Lord's Prayer together, such a goose bumpy experience!! Cheers, hails when Obama was sworn in and even bigger cheers when we all saw the Marine One helicopter taking the Bushes to AFB to get them on their way to Texas!!! We had an arduous trip from there back to Wendy's, but packed up our stuff and drove home, arriving back in Endicott around 10:30 that night.
I am bragging here, but hey, it's my blog and they are my kids!!!! Our three children did such an amazing job. There was no crying, whining, complaining in long lines, or when we didn't eat on time. They were aware of the magnitude of what we were all experiencing and enjoyed it as much as we did. I love that they are so excited to meet and see, as Molly calls him, Irack Obama. I do think that she was slightly disturbed that we didn't get to actually meet him or Malia or Sasha. We are going to write a letter to the First Family and invite them for a barbeque here this summer in Endicott. Who knows, stranger things have happened, eh?? We'll let you know about that!!!! Enjoy the pictures. They are mostly in the order that we were there, but I'll put captions where it maybe isn't obvious what you are looking at.
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