Moving closer to the reality of an Obama Administration

We arrived in D.C. yesterday/Thursday morning, January 15, 2008. We rarely have time to see television, so it was weird to walk by a big screen in the airport, showing a journalist who had been negative about Barack during the campaign, reporting objectively about "President Elect Barack Obama will..." The reality still hasn't quite sunk in. In a way, we feel like our best friend is now everybody's best friend, so he won't have time for us anymore, but, hey, wasn't that our goal in the first place? :)

While Kelvin and Kel toured the Air and Space Museum, Sarah scoped out The Mall and the podium in front of the Capitol building, where Barack will be speaking. Everyone with tickets will be able to totally feel a part of this event, even the standing tickets. Even people with silver tickets, which are the farthest back, will have a good view of the Capitol building, brightly decorated with U.S. flags, although actually seeing Barack will be more of a challenge. I wish we owned binoculars and that I had brought them.

I think it was 10 degrees yesterday, with a wind chill below zero. I had gotten our son, Kel, a hat with an attached piece of fabric to go over the face. I should have gotten one for myself, too, because my cheeks stayed pink for several hours after I came in, despite my efforts to cover my face with a cashmere scarf that was supposed to be 8 times warmer than regular wool! We brought long underwear with us, but didn't wear them yesterday. We corrected that for today. We'll break out the hand and foot warmers on Tuesday. We also got Kel a bright orange, fur-lined hunters cap, with ear flaps, to wear Inauguration Day, so he will be easy to spot in a crowd.

We were the "inaugural" Inaugural guests at our hotel, the Washington Suites in Georgetown.

Yesterday was apparently a day like any other. I was surprised by how few people were on the Mall and in the museums.

We went to a grocery store to get some food for Tuesday, when it may be impossible to get into a restaurant. Our hotel room has a kitchen, so we're "good," if we can control ourselves from eating all the food prior to Tuesday.

We took the Metro from Foggy Bottom/George Washington U., near our hotel, to the Smithsonian station yesterday. The latter will be closed on Tuesday. People with tickets to the Swearing In need to enter from either the North or South, depending on what section they are in. They need to use Metro lines and use Metro exits that correspond to the appropriate sides of the Mall. Here is a link (from the Washington Post) to a map of the mall, with the Metro stops and the places where people can enter. Non-ticketed folks need to enter through certain spots, too.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2008/12/04/GR2008120402930.html

Here is more info. about the Inauguration (after the paragraph about The National Anthem, click on "See a map" to see where the different ticketed areas are located. Our friends who were Missouri and Kansas Staff have tickets in the Purple Section).

http://dc.about.com/b/2008/12/19/inauguration-swearing-in-ceremony.htm

A nice guy who works in the Air and Space Museum said that the Smithsonian Castle and the Museum of Natural History will be opening as early as 8:00 a.m. on Inauguration Day, so perhaps people who need to warm up a bit could go in there for awhile, if they can get in (no charge).

We learned that some people will be driving OUT to the outlying/farthest out Metro stops, so they will be able to get a seat on the train. Of course, if they have to transfer to get to the Capitol, that plan may not work so well. We are about 3 miles from the Capitol, so we could, theoretically, walk, if necessary. The Metro starts running at 4:00 a.m.

We are hopeful that the millions of people who attend the Swearing In Ceremony will follow Barack's example and behave towards one another with dignity, respect, and compassion, although we will all be tested!

First things first: There were long lines of porta-potties on both sides of the mall, in the non-ticketed areas. I'd read that there would be no toilets in the ticketed areas, but there were some; probably not enough for the thousands of people who will be there.

This is a Secret Service Link about security, but it has links to ALL KINDS of other good information--

http://www.inauguration.dc.gov/pdf/GPA01-09InaugSecPlans.pdf

We are here with cell phones and can be your eyes and ears, let us know what you want to know!