Okee Dokie then, pictures : )
The boy and I had a couple great days in DC last Fri - Sat. We drove up Thurs and back Sunday - Thursday afternoon we arrived on the beltway just in time for rush hour DC style and it took us more than an hour and a half to go the last 20 miles. Makes me very very glad I don't live up there! The trip up took well over 9 1/2 hours - the trip home about 8....
Friday we didn't try to get on the metro before 9:30 a.m. so our trip in was easy as can be. We came up in front of the Navy Memorial and behind the Archives on Pennsylvania Avenue and from there it was a short walk up to the Newseum. As we got to the front of the building the boy pointed out that his tickets would be free for that day - great, I'd already bought tickets for him on line - and they ain't cheap. Ah well I thought, that is what I get for trying to be organized and prepared and doing things ahead. I made a crack to one of the security guys at the door about me being dumb and unnecessarily spending money on a ticket - he took me right to the ticket desk and they refunded my money! Wow! I sure didn't expect that.
We really enjoyed our visit to the museum, it isn't huge like the Smithsonian museums but it had plenty of interesting items - a fun display on the FBI, they called them G-men (side note - life sized cut out of J Edger Hoover showed him to be much shorter than me. That was a bit of a shock), some bits of Elvis memorabilia, but most moving were several of the slabs from the Berlin Wall (and a good display on the building of the wall and people's attempts to cross from the East into the West) and the twisted steel remains of the top of one of the antenna from the World Trade Center (and a few small pieces of the plane from Penn.). The 9-11 pieces gave me chills - they also had the cameras of the news photographer who was killed when the first tower fell.
There is a balcony on the 6th floor from which you get a fantastic view of the city
When we finished the Newseum it was only about one o'clock so we walked a few blocks down and over and went to the International Spy museum. That was fun as well, I particularly enjoyed the WW2/Cold War era spy cameras and guns - ring cameras, cigarette guns - too fun.
Finished all that about three so we still had some time to kill. We decided to go ahead and walk to the Lincoln Memorial to see the stage and what was happening in the area that the rally was to take place. I figured it was our best bet to actually get a clear look at things as I expected we would get nowhere near the front on Saturday. I'm glad we made the hike. They were doing sound checks and checking the jumbo-trons so I knew that so long as we got somewhere between the WW2 memorial and the reflecting pool we'd be able to see and hear just fine (all be it from super large screens and mega speakers). I also found that there were already a good many people settled into the places they planned to remain in until all activity was over - some 24 hours later. There were plenty of folks doing the same as me - enjoying museums and casing the grounds for the rally on the day before. Lots of smiles and excitement.
After we had all we could stand for the day we made our way back to the metro and took the train back to Maryland where we were staying with an old friend. I spent the evening convincing my hosts that we would need to get on the metro at the beginning of a line on Saturday morning because my experience last year told me that the train would be packed from the very first stop and if we tried to get on later we wouldn't be able to wedge ourselves in. Eventually they took me at my word and said they'd take me to the beginning of the orange line because it was in an industrial area and there is never anyone there on Saturday mornings. I thanked them and said I'd need to be there about an hour before it opened, meaning 6 a.m. They thought I was a little nuts but graciously offered to drive us over even at that insanely early hour. When we arrived the line was already very long - my host's jaw literally dropped. She said she had never seen anything like it. I just smiled - and was very relieved that we had gotten there when we had. I'd also had the presence of mind to buy our metro tickets the day before so once the doors were opened we didn't have to wait in line at the machines. The boy and I were on the first car of the first train of the morning at the first stop of the orange line. And as I expected the train was packed - I am sure it continued that way for several hours.
The crowd was excited - happy - and ready for fun. And that feeling continued for the rest of the day. We rode in (and no one was able to get on at any of the subsequent stops, just as expected) and walked as quickly as we could toward the area of the rally. Fast as we were - early as we began - the closest we could get was about half way up the reflecting pool. Left side. The boy and I settled into our spot and began to meet the people around us. There were people from as close as Maryland and as far as California just in our area. Primarily I spoke with a couple of fellow southern belles from Atlanta-
The boy and I had a couple great days in DC last Fri - Sat. We drove up Thurs and back Sunday - Thursday afternoon we arrived on the beltway just in time for rush hour DC style and it took us more than an hour and a half to go the last 20 miles. Makes me very very glad I don't live up there! The trip up took well over 9 1/2 hours - the trip home about 8....
Friday we didn't try to get on the metro before 9:30 a.m. so our trip in was easy as can be. We came up in front of the Navy Memorial and behind the Archives on Pennsylvania Avenue and from there it was a short walk up to the Newseum. As we got to the front of the building the boy pointed out that his tickets would be free for that day - great, I'd already bought tickets for him on line - and they ain't cheap. Ah well I thought, that is what I get for trying to be organized and prepared and doing things ahead. I made a crack to one of the security guys at the door about me being dumb and unnecessarily spending money on a ticket - he took me right to the ticket desk and they refunded my money! Wow! I sure didn't expect that.
We really enjoyed our visit to the museum, it isn't huge like the Smithsonian museums but it had plenty of interesting items - a fun display on the FBI, they called them G-men (side note - life sized cut out of J Edger Hoover showed him to be much shorter than me. That was a bit of a shock), some bits of Elvis memorabilia, but most moving were several of the slabs from the Berlin Wall (and a good display on the building of the wall and people's attempts to cross from the East into the West) and the twisted steel remains of the top of one of the antenna from the World Trade Center (and a few small pieces of the plane from Penn.). The 9-11 pieces gave me chills - they also had the cameras of the news photographer who was killed when the first tower fell.
There is a balcony on the 6th floor from which you get a fantastic view of the city
When we finished the Newseum it was only about one o'clock so we walked a few blocks down and over and went to the International Spy museum. That was fun as well, I particularly enjoyed the WW2/Cold War era spy cameras and guns - ring cameras, cigarette guns - too fun.
Finished all that about three so we still had some time to kill. We decided to go ahead and walk to the Lincoln Memorial to see the stage and what was happening in the area that the rally was to take place. I figured it was our best bet to actually get a clear look at things as I expected we would get nowhere near the front on Saturday. I'm glad we made the hike. They were doing sound checks and checking the jumbo-trons so I knew that so long as we got somewhere between the WW2 memorial and the reflecting pool we'd be able to see and hear just fine (all be it from super large screens and mega speakers). I also found that there were already a good many people settled into the places they planned to remain in until all activity was over - some 24 hours later. There were plenty of folks doing the same as me - enjoying museums and casing the grounds for the rally on the day before. Lots of smiles and excitement.
After we had all we could stand for the day we made our way back to the metro and took the train back to Maryland where we were staying with an old friend. I spent the evening convincing my hosts that we would need to get on the metro at the beginning of a line on Saturday morning because my experience last year told me that the train would be packed from the very first stop and if we tried to get on later we wouldn't be able to wedge ourselves in. Eventually they took me at my word and said they'd take me to the beginning of the orange line because it was in an industrial area and there is never anyone there on Saturday mornings. I thanked them and said I'd need to be there about an hour before it opened, meaning 6 a.m. They thought I was a little nuts but graciously offered to drive us over even at that insanely early hour. When we arrived the line was already very long - my host's jaw literally dropped. She said she had never seen anything like it. I just smiled - and was very relieved that we had gotten there when we had. I'd also had the presence of mind to buy our metro tickets the day before so once the doors were opened we didn't have to wait in line at the machines. The boy and I were on the first car of the first train of the morning at the first stop of the orange line. And as I expected the train was packed - I am sure it continued that way for several hours.
The crowd was excited - happy - and ready for fun. And that feeling continued for the rest of the day. We rode in (and no one was able to get on at any of the subsequent stops, just as expected) and walked as quickly as we could toward the area of the rally. Fast as we were - early as we began - the closest we could get was about half way up the reflecting pool. Left side. The boy and I settled into our spot and began to meet the people around us. There were people from as close as Maryland and as far as California just in our area. Primarily I spoke with a couple of fellow southern belles from Atlanta-
This is Ginger and Catherine, Catherine is the leader of her local 9-12 group. I believe given a little more quiet and a little more time we could become friends. Also sitting right behind us was a reporter for the Atlanta Journal - Constitution, apparently he won the lottery and was chosen to cover the event. He told us everyone was jealous. He seemed genuinely interested in what was going on and what those of us in the area had to say about it all. I kept my mouth shut but I did hear some very well thought out explanations given to him. There was also an AP photographer from DC more or less camped out with us. He wanted to move about more to get more pictures, but the crowd was so dense - once things got rolling - when he tried to get out and about he couldn't really get anywhere. I also know he was very frustrated toward the end of the rally as he tried to upload his photos to the AP. There was no signal to be had - way too much digital data flying about with those tens of hundreds of people we were with. giggle.
One of the most moving moments of the day occurred actually before things really got cranking. There were beautiful shots from around America playing on the screens, moving music building to a crescendo when suddenly a flock of geese in perfect V formation rose up from behind the Washington Monument and flew down the center of the reflecting pool
It gave me chills, seriously. A couple days later I heard Glenn saying that someone had sent him a video of this occurrence, he was totally unaware that it had happened. The truly moving thing is that he had tried for months to get a military fly over arranged - to no avail. So maybe God sent his own feathered fly over... You would have to have been there to feel how incredible it was.
After all the speakers, and a very moving closing prayer, Jo Dee Messina - John Rich - and others gave us a small concert as people began to break up and head toward their busses and the metro. At this point DW and I managed to meet up at the Hawaii marker of the WW2 memorial. It was great to put a second blogger buddy face with a name. We had a nice quick chat and a few laughs then he went to find his travel companions and the boy and I continued toward Pennsylvania Ave. As we approached the road between the Washington Monument and the Smithsonian buildings we saw a fire truck spraying water for any who wished a quick cool down. The boy took advantage of the opportunity
I did too, but no wet t-shirt shots of me to prove it!
From here we squished our way on down the road - along the way we passed a Michele Bachman gathering and were able to listen to her for a few minutes, but honestly we were too tired to stay for long. Then we encountered the Sharpton march as they made their way up Penn Ave.
After watching them for a while, and allowing the boy to see and feel the difference in attitude between this group and the one we had left - seeing first hand the difference between hate/ intolerance and love/ acceptance (you figure which was which), we had to make our way right through the march to cross the street to our metro station.
Just at the top of the entrance we found this fellow catching some cooling action from the granite of the wall. I think he was just plumb worn out from all the excitement.
And from there we just rode back to Maryland, went out for a good burger and some homemade ice cream and then a very much needed good night's sleep.
So there you have our experience in DC. It was an amazing day Saturday. I will not go into the size of the crowd too much here - but I will say that anyone who says it was less than 4-500 thousand is laughable and a higher count is well within the realm of reason. Everything from the feet of Lincoln (literally) to the base of the Washington monument was packed. Also to both sides from the Viet Nam Memorial to the Korean Memorial. I saw no signs and heard no agitation in the area around us, but we was pretty much smack dab in the middle and if there were to be any agitating I would expect it to have been out around the edges.
Next time you guys come with? It's well worth the time and trouble of the trip.
Go here if you want to see more pictures from the day.
Go here if you are interested in the Huffington Post's idea of what is ridiculous.
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"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
What a wonderful experience! I also heard that the grounds were cleaner than after the Inauguration AND there were no arrests. That's because this honorable gathering was by good folks doing good things for the good of our country.
P.S. Y'all are safe from the hurricane, right?
The grounds were so clean that once everyone was gone you wouldn't have known that any rally had taken place. I witnessed a couple of loud arguments as we headed back to our bus, but both were being handled well and recorded by rally attendees in case the agitators (i.e. the folks from the Sharpton rally) caused any problems.
BTW, the geese flew directly over our position as they banked left around the Lincoln memorial, and I got goosebumps thinking about it because those geese would not normally have been flying in that area this early in the year. Divine providence, indeed!
The only trash I saw at all were two water bottles left on the ground by the AP photographer. I waited and watched for a while to see if he would pick them up, but when he left for good they were still there so I picked them up and put them in our backpack. I took a picture of them too, but decided not to post it. I'm not kidding when I say those were the ONLY bits of trash I saw anywhere but in trash cans and bags.
And the geese? OMG it was absolutely stunning - and of course as you know DW there was a huge round of cheers and applause for them.
Sounds like you had a terrific time and what a great experience for your son! Love the geese it's very cool that you got them on video. They are flying south early this year - way way earlier than normal, which makes me think we're going to have an extra cold winter. But they did pick a terrific time to do a crowd flyover didn't they - couldn't have asked for better.
Of course after reading all that I'm completely exhausted!!! LOL.
Hope Earl is not headed too close to you!
Earl is not a threat - they are not even predicting rain for us up here in the mountains.
Fiona on the other hand is sitting right here :)
Love the pictures and the flyover! Thought August might have been too hot for a rally but everyone looked pretty comfortable. And happy. And that's what counts. :)
So awesome.
thanks for your recap.
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing the weekend with us. I do believe your son and mine would be great friends. Perhaps next year...