What an amazing trip! I had such a wonderful time, I am so thankful I took advantage of this opportunity. I had great traveling companions, my mother and Aunt Connie. We didn't have very many days, but we sure used every minute we could. We saw a great deal in our short time.
We flew in on Saturday, we stayed at the Marriott in Crystal Gate in Arlington. We were about 4 miles from downtown Washington DC, but the Metro was just a tunnel away from our hotel so we were able to get around very quickly. The Metro is very quick and efficient.
Sunday we went to a fundraiser for Terry McAuliffe who will be running for Governor in Virgina. It was at the Palm restaurant, and they hired Shawn Mullins to play some music. I got a few autographed Cd's. Hilary Clinton was to make an appearance, however she got tied up so they sent Bill, he said a few words shook our hands and was off. For this type of function, it was pretty fun. We left the Palm and headed out to do some site seeing. We caught the tail end of the concert, we heard Garth Brooks, part of Obama's speech and Beyonce.
Monday we arose early to go get our inauguration tickets. We stopped at Arlington Cemetery on the way. I had always heard the tombstones go on and on, but its something you can never imagine until you see it. Really made me realize how proud I am to be an American.
Then we were off to get our tickets, WOW what a joke that could have been. There were, what I thought at the time, so many people. Lines that wrapped around buildings everywhere. We really lucked out and got our tickets pretty quick. The rest of the day was spent site seeing. I would guess we walked at least 15 miles. We made it back to the hotel with just enough time to put on some heels and head to the Delaware Ball. The 3 of us really didn't want to go after the day we had, but cant miss an Inaugural ball, right?? Yeah, should have stayed home. Ill leave it at that!
Tuesday the day of the Inauguration! It look us almost 2 hours just to find our "Orange" line, what a joke it all was. There were more people then anybody could ever describe. We finally found our line, and after tricking hundreds of thousands of people to walk around in circles for hours, they started letting us in. We made it in, and later would find out we were very lucky to have made it in. Lots of people did not make it in. When Obama took his oath, the feeling in the air was truly amazing. I have never felt so hopeful. It almost didn't seem real, but the freezing cold air reminded us just how real it all was.. and how exciting it all was.
After the ceremony was over, we were heading over to a party a family friend was hosting and we saw Bush leaving in his helicopter. It really made my day perfect! When we got to the party, we were literally frozen. We walked in and Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher are sitting a foot away from me. Later Dustin Hoffman showed up, had a nice chat with him. We tried leaving the party to get back to the hotel, but the metro had been shut down and it was impossible to get a taxi or limo. Later we heard people were stuck underground in the metro stations for 3-6 hours. I have never been so thankful to be stuck in a warm townhouse with good company, appetizers and mixed drinks!
Although we had an experience most will never get to have,we did miss out on some stuff due to security for the ceremony. White house was closed, Arlington Bride was closed etc, and we didn't have time to make it to any of the museums. I am very excited to get back there with Trever when the girls are about 8 and 10 to see everything I missed.
When I got home, Maddy had learned who the new President was and was very proud to tell me all about him. She told me she was looking for me on TV, "but all those people were in the way of me finding you", dang those 2 million people my daughter wanted to see me on TV!
I have posted a lot more pictures on Flickr
