A few days with Obama!

It worked out rather conveniently that we scheduled to visit my family in Virginia at the same time as the Inauguration! History in the making, and we got to experience it...in all it's cold, frigid, freezing glory. (We're not too used to the cold weather, and certainly not being in it for 24 hours straight!)

So, like I said my family lives in Virginia and we flew in on the 13th. Pretty much we've been laying around the whole week - sleeping late, eating, barely going outside in the cold, playing music...you know, stuff you do when you "go home". Then we decided that we would get to Washington DC on Monday, as soon as we could. So we packed up as many warm things as we could while still trying to stay within the unrestricted items from the inauguration website. Then my daddio drove us to our friend Will's house, that very perfectly lived in Rockville next to a Metro station.

After a quick jam session with Will and his friend we walked to the Metro in the snow. (SNOW YEAH!) Then we hoped on the train and headed in to the city for our adventure. We got there around 4:30pm and immediately sought out a warm place...aka a place to sit down and have a beer. My daddy gave us some play money (THANKS DAD!) and so we promptly treated ourselves. Our first bar was Austin Grill which was PACKED with people, one of those people was Gary Dourdan from CSI. I had no clue who he was, but the servers were giddy about it and Phoenix had a feeling he was famous. Even though the place was ridiculously packed, EVERYONE was so friendly. People of different classes, races, and cultures mixed like they were best friends - it was truly beautiful.

After Phoenix' Shinerbock and my Top Shock we headed back out into the cold with a bit more warmth. Our next stop though, was another place to have a drink. So we went to a local brewery called Chophouse Brewery with some creative named beers like Barack Bock and such. Again it was totally packed, but we found a place at the bar and ordered - I got the Amber Ale (not so creative a name) and Phoenix got the Nut Brown Ale. Here Phoenix' unique patchwork-looking skirt made us a lady-friend who offered us a place to stay for the night if we decided we didn't want to suffer the cold. Two beers in and we were finding a lot more people to be social with!

After that round we headed out again to do some exploring. But didn't get far before we were hungry and cold once more. So we found this little sports bar called Pen Quarter, of course also packed. Specifically there was a fair amount of lesbians in the downstairs area - one of which followed us upstairs and aggressively flirting with Phoenix. Haha! Eventually we swooped in on a spot ordered a Steak and Cheese and another round of tall beers - this time I got Blue Moon (MY FAV!) and Phoenix a Yingling. We must have sat there for quite a few hours talking, which was so fun. And finally went back out into the cold.

This time we decided to explore the Mall a bit and it was about 11pm. The streets along side the Mall were lined with news vans waiting for the next days events, which was neat to see. And the Mall lawn was lit up with huge spotlights shooting to the cloudy sky, which was almost like a Broadway light show! Of course if you look down one end of the Mall the Capitol Building was shining bright and then the other end stood the Washington Monument. We took some fun pictures of that scene. Then we headed toward the Monument and came upon the World War II memorial, snapping a picture next to the California pillar. Then further to hang out at the foot of the Monument. It looked so cool, all lit up and surrounded by so many American flags crackling in the wind. After that we started to head toward Jefferson Memorial, but eventually decided it was too far away, so headed back toward the city and warmth.

Once we got back to the Mall and the side street with the news crew vans we discovered a secret gem! One of the vans had a big machine that all their equipment was plugged into and it was blasting out hot air! So we sat in front of it for a good while and warmed up, taking off our shoes and socks to dry our sweaty feet - haha! Eventually we got hungry again and headed toward the restaurants and downtown. On the way we passed...guess who...Micheal J Fox! Yep, I could have reached out and put my arm around him, he walked right past us. But we didn't stop him, I'd hate to be a pest and he was obviously on a mission to get somewhere since it was already Midnight. So eventually we landed at an open-late bar called Bar Louie. We got a really yummy California Sandwich and water, just water this time. We were starting to get PRETTY tired and still had a long night ahead of us.

The plan was to basically try and stay awake and warm until...well until the inauguration. After Bar Louie we decided we were going to try and set up camp at the Mall, hopefully cuddle up in front of the News van heater thingy. Unfortunately, by the time we got to Continental Dr. they had already blocked the road in preparation for the Parade, but somehow we managed to slip past the check-point where civilians beginning to be stopped. So instead of going back outside of the Checkpoint area we decided to find a little corner and try to stay warm until 7ish when they were letting people back in. This was at 2:20am-ish. From our little spot, nestled into the corner of a bank's building we were able to watch a lot of the "behind the scenes" things happening! Civilians were being sent out of the area, police were pouring in, official looking SUV's cruised in large groups down the road, and more barricades and guard rails were being set up on the street. It was an interesting thing to watch! We honestly were really close to it all, and I'm surprised someone didn't see us and tell us to leave.

After about two hours of watching and napping the cold became unbearable, and we knew that we had at least three more hours left. So we decided to head to the 24 hour Starbucks we had seen earlier. In order to do that though we had to go outside of a checkpoint area and thus away from public restrooms (which was quite the adventure). The staff in Starbucks was so very beautiful and loving and patient. We got a big'ol hot chocolate and found a nice little spot to hang out before it got too crowded. So there we stayed until 6:30am when people were starting to line up at the check points.

The check points were supposed to open at 7:00am but we had managed to find our way to a Press and Volunteer check point. So, being regular citizens we had to wait until all of them had passed through, which took until about 8. Finally we got through the checkpoint, and all of the officers and bag searchers were super nice. They also weren't as strict as the website insisted they would be as several people had backpacks even though it was considered a restricted item. Once in we did our best to hurry to the Mall. During the night though, they had closed off the streets for the Parade so you couldn't cross them except at certain points, in groups, and basically chaperoned by several LEOs. The Mall was really a straight shot, but with the intricate gates and barricade systems it took about half an hour to get about a half a mile or so.

We reached the Mall around 8:30 or so and it was already packed with thousands and thousands of people. The jumbotrons were on and U2 was singing about peace and being Irish. We tried to find a spot to stand in the masses of people, eventually settling on a cozy herd of people near a dumpster. And there we stood until the end of the inauguration! So about 3-4 hours. It was slightly torturous and absolutely frigid. Our backs hurt from the night before and from standing still for so long. The long inauguration guest list seemed to last forever! I was able to get the crowd's reaction to the different heavy political hitters like Clinton, Bush, Obama and family. I want to splice it together in a little movie - that should be neat!

So the big moment came when Obama was sworn in and the energy in the crowd was so incredibly charged because everyone there is obviously an Obama supporter. Everyone was vibrating with each word he said in his speech. It wasn't cold anymore it was heated and charged as we all blissed with his messages of hope, change, equality, and humbleness. There was a beautiful angel that we were blessed to be standing by that had nothing but love to share. When most of the crowed boo'd at Bush, she sent him love and encouragement. She loved everyone, it was truly wonderful to be around. She was so cute! She would sing "J'ai bon! J'ai bon! Alleluia! J'ai bon!".

The same charged energy pulsed through the crowd when the prayers were said. Even though they said the "Our Father" which is a very Christian-specific prayer I think the intention was quite clear and present, and all people of all faiths could (hopefully) feel it. Standing among 2 million people in meditation and prayer...we certainly felt it.

After the speeches and prayers were done people began filing out to get to the Metros and such. But unfortunately, where there are 2 million people...there are 2 million peoples' trash. Even after Obama's inspirational speech about change and helping the environment people still left their trash everywhere. The wind would pick up and there would be storms of trash twirling in the wind and dust...it was really sad and honestly embarrassing. So I pulled out a big Ziplock back, which is the only bag we had, handed one to Phoenix and we started stuffing them with trash. I thought "I wish I had a trash bag" and turned around and there one was on the ground...among the rest of the trash. I picked it up and started filling it. One woman reached down and gave me a kiss on the cheek, thanking me intensely. Within a few minutes we had a large spectrum of involvement - from people that wouldn't even move their feet as we crawled past them picking up their trash, to people that gave us handfuls of trash, and still others that became part of our consistent task force of trash picker-up-ers.

We picked up trash for about 2 hours, every once in a while asking a crowd of passer-byers if they would pick some up (Phoenix) or if they loved their country not to leave it a mess (Me). I got pretty upset at certain times, especially when people would make rude comments at me or ask me directions as if I worked there. But eventually our hands were frozen to a point where we couldn't even tie the bags closed, and there were tons of them. So we said bye to our task force - Scott and Kathy (unfortunately we didn't get the name of another guy that even started recycling the bottles!), and tried to make our way to the Metro.

Unfortunately though the city had been basically cut in half because of the parade route. This meant that we couldn't get to the Metro Center that we needed. So instead we headed to the Natural History Museum and found a little nook near some Dinosaurs to squeeze into and take a nap for a couple of hours. When we woke up, we figured the parade would be cleared as it was about 4pm so headed back down to Continental St. But nope, there were still bands that hadn't even started the parade march yet. So we walked along to get to a warm spot and possibly some food, resolving to be in the city for the next 4 hours until the parade cleared up. Right then, of course, we found L'enfant Metro station and the line was outside but moving quickly! So we hoped in it and within 30 minutes we were back in Rockville and in a warm car with our friend Will! Totally a blessing to be out of the cold and be able to sit down. We told Will about our crazy adventure as we sipped tea. Then we gathered our stuff, including our guitars and drums and headed back to the train station - we had to go back into the city, switch the train line and then head to the station near my dad in Virginia.

On the train Phoenix was inspired and busted out her guitar to make some beautiful music. She sang to pretty much everyone that got on and off the train and I played the drum and harmonica. At one point a kid got on and asked to play the drum and we had a little jam session for a few stops until he left. It was really beautiful. When we got to our destination in VA we brought out the drums and played while waiting for my dad to get there. Some little girls totally dug it and came over to watch us, so we handed them the drums and watched them play until my dad got there. It was so cool!

Then home we went, showered, ate, and cuddled up in bed to get a comfy night sleep. A very cold, bordering miserable, but historic adventure! Not sure we'll do another inauguration...but I'm proud we were there for such a big one!

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