Stacey & Kristy's DC Adventure

Decent pictures!

2009-01-21T22:16:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

This will be the first post with actual pictures (picture heavy, so if your connection is slow you might want to view this one at work *smile*) taken with the digital camera. All the pictures up til now have been from my cell phone. We have taken about a million pics so far and I won't be putting them all here, but if you'd like to each every single pic we took (except for the one's with me in them cuz I like like a weigh about a million pounds and I will not be sharing that shame with the internets *smile* you can see them all here.

So we left the hotel yesterday morning around 3:30am. It takes about an hour or so to drive from where we are into Fairfax where we can catch the metro into DC. As I mentioned before the metro stations were insane! There were seriously about a million people. Since we got on at the start of the line we were able to get seats which was really good because we were on the train for almost 2 hours, a trip that took us 25 mins today.

Once we got into DC we were met with even bigger crowds of people are eager to get to the Inauguration. There were police there but we really did not see that many. It was actually really chaotic. No one really knew what was going on or where we were supposed to be. There were "official" volunteers all around with red beanies on who were supposed to help but none of them really knew anything. We had tickets for the silver area, you can see the map here, and we had been told that it could take up to 3 hours to make it through security to get into our area so we were trying to get to the line as fast as possible. We saw about a million other people around us with silver tickets all looking for the same line.

When we finally find the line it is about a mile long, probably more. NO JOKE! We walked for blocks trying to find the end and never actually did. At this point we decide we will just go to the mall because we were also told that they would stop letting people in through security at 11:00am and since it was already 10am by this point there was no way we were going to get to the front of that line in time.

So we start walking and just about every entrance to the mall is closed. Volunteers are directing everyone to the only open gate which is at 14th street. Mind you we started at 3rd street. We make it to 12th street with 5 gazlion others when we hit a dead end. all the people just stop. There is no way forward. OK we decide, we were here, it was fun, we'll just go back to the hotel and watch it from there. On our way back we stop to ask a volunteer if it's worth trying to get in the silver line (she doesn't know) or if they are really going to stop letting people in at 11:00 (she doesn't know) or if it really takes 3 hours to get through the line (you guessed it, she doesn't know!). Thankfully, there was another volunteer across the street screaming that the security gate was wide open, no line. Everyone is waiting in a line that feeds right back into itself and no one is actually at the security gate. Go this way and get right in. Awesome!

We head over and are barely searched, get right in and start looking for a spot to watch the jumbotron. The ceremony itself was great. We saw it differently than what was broadcast on television and everyone was in really high spirits. We boo'd Bush and sang goodbye. We cheered for Gore and wondered why Oprah didn't bring Steadman (found out later that she did). We bonded with the crowd, yelled at people who were putting their kids on their shoulders and in our way and just had a great time in general. It was all about brotherly love. There was so much potential for riots, etc. but everyone was really on their best behavior.

Once the Inauguration was over we tried to make our way back to the train station to go back to the hotel but unfortunately everyone else had the same idea. They were telling people that you should go to the Inauguration or the parade but not both. So at the end we all headed towards the station and got caught in yet another human traffic jam. You could not get into any of the stations. We walked about 5 miles (again I'm not exaggerating here) trying to find a station that was open. When that didn't work we decided to go into one of the museums to wait it out and get warm. It was really, really cold! Again, we were not the only one's to have this idea.

The museums got so crowded that they eventually stopped letting people in. Lines for food and restrooms were out of control. We hid upstairs in the Wright Brothers exhibit for about an hour hoping that once the parade started we would be able to get to and into a station. When we thought the coast was clear we headed out and again were turned away from just about every station we tried. By now my feet are hurting and Kristy and I are snapping at each other. It's about 3pm and we haven't eaten and we really thought we would be back at the hotel by this point. Everyone else was in the same situation. People were even walking across the freeway trying to get to the next closest station or just to get out of the area. We decided to go into another museum and wait some more. This time we were able to buy some really expensive food, boy was it good!

The people along the wall in the picture above were in line for McDonalds which is so far away you can't even see it in this shot.

At 5pm we decide to leave the museum and head to the station so we don't get caught in the crowd of people who will be turned out when they close at 5:30. This time we make it out. On our way to the station we see the aftermath of having 2 million people in one small area. There was trash EVERYWHERE! Piles and piles of the stuff. We saw many lost gloves and scarves. About a million old hand warmers and trampled newspaper. I feel for whoever had to clean that up. It's way worse than how Pasadena looks after the Rose Parade.

Once we got back to the room we pretty much crashed. We had only slept about 5 hours in two days at this point and part of that sleep was on the plane (which doesn't really count, LOL).

It was a great experience, even with the crowds and the walking and the cold and I'm very glad and feel very lucky to have been here. I would do it all again in a heartbeat, both of us would. We spent today being regular tourist and I took a million more pictures with my Japanese tourist camera (as Kristy calls it) but I won't add any of those today as I think I have crashed enough of your computers with the pictures in this post already. I hope you all enjoyed following along, I'll be posting some of our tourist pictures in a separate post tomorrow or Friday.

Love you all and thanks to everyone who helped make it possible for me to come by giving some cash or playing babysitter. I truly appreciate it.

YES WE DID!

Yes we did

2009-01-21T15:56:00.001-08:00

Hello all, sorry there were no more updates yesterday but we were wasted (not in a drunk way) by the time we got back to the hotel. I downloaded over 130 photos to flickr but didn't have the energy to post them last night. If you already know where to view my flickr account (stacey's) you can see them now. Otherwise, you'll have to wait til tonight. You can also try looking up my flickr acct under the search option for people, my user name is superstahr01.

We did more sight seeing today (pics to come) and bought souvenirs. Juanita, I got you and Hazel some magnets *smile*

OK, TTFN! We are still being tourists. LOL

We made it!

2009-01-20T07:15:00.000-08:00

There are a million billion people here but we made it into the ticketed area where its not really crowded at all. There is not much info out here and we almost got in a really long line before finding out that the line led to no where. After being directed to the right area we got through security in seconds. I feel bad for all those people still standing in the line to no where.

Now a choir is singing and we are just waiting for more of the show. I'll tell more later but we must have really been meant to come here today because everything just keeps falling in place.

Enjoy the show! More updates later!

Metro

2009-01-20T05:52:00.001-08:00

We've been on the train about 90 mins now and we still have a little ways to go. Some trains have broken down and had to be emptied from being over full and people holding the doors open. Our train is pretty gangsta though, screaming at any one standing in doorways to GET OFF!

Still having fun though :)

Tickets!

2009-01-20T03:02:00.000-08:00

We're almost at the metro parking lot. Its about 6am here. There is a very long line for parking and an even longer line to get on the train. Spirits are high, but then again we're still sitting in a warm car. :)

More updates later.

Chewbacca!

2009-01-19T21:35:00.000-08:00

Everyone turned out for Obama's inauguration, even Chewy!

Airport Food

2009-01-19T21:29:00.001-08:00

Mmm! Airport food! Stacey and I weren't able to get on the same
flights but we arrive in DC at the same time. We're half way there!

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We're here!

2009-01-19T15:59:00.000-08:00

Haven't even left the airport yet...

2009-01-19T13:18:00.001-08:00

And there is already tons of Obama swag. People are taking pictures of themselves in front of the newsstand with souvenirs they don't even plan to buy. The lady in front of me now is doing a whole photo shoot. She keeps telling her "photog" stuff like 'make sure there's no glare!' And 'make sure it doesn't look like I'm standing in front of a news stand!'

Insane!

The eagle has landed

2009-01-19T13:12:00.001-08:00

I'm still in the airport so I can't say how cold it is but I do know its not warm. They were predicting snow but I don't see any. Kristy is on a separate plane so I'm waiting here for her to land. More news and pics later!

Full flight

2009-01-19T10:14:00.000-08:00

My plane is completely booked. And LOUD! Thankfully Elka let me take her noise cancelling Bose head phones so its not so bad. My seat mate is a little chatty but she's nice so I won't complain to much. :)

Leaving on a jet plane!

2009-01-19T04:54:00.000-08:00

Its about 5 am and I just made it through security. Lot of people flying today. Haven't seen Kristy yet but I'm sure she's here some where.

Traveling light

2009-01-17T15:12:00.001-08:00

Apparently Stacey and I are going on two different trips.

What in the world is she bringing with her?!?! And I still have room in both of those bags.

She'll become a world traveler after this trip!

p.s. Stacey made that hat!

Almost...

2009-01-17T11:36:00.000-08:00

All packed and ready to go. Everyone pray we have a safe flight!

We should land in DC around 4pm local time, 1pm LA time. Then we will go pick up our tickets from congress and then to the hotel.

Test

2009-01-16T22:56:00.000-08:00

Sent from my phone

2 days to go!

2009-01-16T20:47:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Cherie we are going to blog our way through the Inauguration of Barack Obama. YES we know it's going to be crowded BUT we have tickets. Which I just found out are standing tickets. Better than nothing right?

We've probably printed every map and guide that can be printed, bought trolley tickets, knitted hats, scarves and scoured the web for cheap uggs!

We're on our way to welcome change and to witness history with our own eyes!