My folks, my sister and I spent about six hours on the streets of DC today. Again the mood was upbeat, even as places started to get more and more crowded.
There were protesters at both Dupont Circle and in Lafayette Park throwing shoes at various images of Bush, including a very huge inflatable one with a very long nose. Police, MPs, and more were out and about in great number. A couple school buses being escorted by DC Protective Services. We even got stopped at one point due to a “security breach”.
The parade route was being surrounded with very large barricades; the press was doing practices runs on the camera vans. We also noted the nice blue stripe down the street to indicate the route. We debated if Malia and Sasha would get to march in the parade, pulling their rolly-bags behind them to move into their new house.
There were lots of kids in big groups (often wearing matching hats) and people partying on the top of the double decker buses (despite the cold).
The lines to get in the museums were the longest they’ve ever been.
The news folks were out too. We saw reporters everywhere. A local news lady in front of the White House. The CNN crew in the middle of The Mall. And Charles Gibson just hanging out on a random street corner.
The whole scene was a festive one. People being friendly to one another; people asking to get their photos taken with strangers (such as military folks and the polar bear lady). A lady was wearing a sign on her back that stated she needed five tickets to the inauguration. A family, with the dad wearing the baby in a Baby Bjorn, rode down The Mall on Segway Scooters (hope they avoided the horse droppings).
We saw one small confrontation. A hawker was yelling that he was selling Obama condoms, and a person asked him if he knew there were kids there. He said he did and didn’t care. But mostly, people were stepping out of the way of other people’s photos and making room for everyone.
At night in the apartment, we could hear helicopters circling, see motorcades racing by and knew the festivities were continuing.
