Our trip to DC/Inauguration (long)
Jan 25, 2017 4:01:22 GMT
jlynnbarth, MizIndependent, and 37 more like this
Post by freebird on Jan 25, 2017 4:01:22 GMT
Not sure if I should mark this as political, although I'm not going to be really talking about "politics" (I'm sure someone will turn it into that!).
So years ago I met a woman who was talking about a local resident. She told me how she had tickets to the Inauguration of Bill Clinton, but didn't go. I'll never forget how I thought that was the craziest thing I'd ever heard! From that point on, it was my goal to go to an Inauguration. Bucket list material for sure.
The past few years I've really busted my hump trying to fulfill my bucket list items (there really is a real life list).
So when Trump was elected I thought about it and decided it would be a good chance to go. On a whim I wrote my congressman and requested tickets. A few weeks later, I got words that I'd been one of the selected constituents to make it! My husband and I sat and had a conversation about it and discussed our worries (protests) and decided that we should go and not let the threat of violence keep us from going. I had no idea if things would be perfectly fine or if we were up for a good ass beating.
Last Wednesday we left and returned on Sunday afternoon. Here's some of my random observations.
- Despite the "bad weather" that everyone thought we were going to have and had a great big chuckle about it, it barely sprinkled 3-4 times. No real rain at all. I will admit that when I opened the curtains the next morning and saw rain/fog/cloudy day I had a chuckle.
- There was pretty much no protesters either Thursday or Friday. A hand full really. Thursday there was a group of 4 - 20-somethings singing "we will overcome". When they got closer to us (we were the only ones there) they started chanting "Fuck Trump .... and his supporters." I'm pretty sure it was directed at us. We just ignored and crossed the street to see the white house. Later we saw them again near the Washington Monument hassling a street vendor who looked really shaken. I feel bad that I didn't stop and talk to the guy now.
- On Friday we only saw a couple people. We did see a silent protest. It was so silent and their signs were so vague that it took me a while to figure out they were actually protesting. We did see 2 young men carrying a flag that said that Trump is a nazi. They were getting interviewed later as we passed by. What those guys weren't prepared for was the 4 Jewish guys that came upon them (we happened to be walking right next to the Jews). The Jews started yelling at the nazi banner guys that they were watering down what really happened to the jews. That Nazi's killed this guy's grandparents. The banner guys high-tailed it out of there as they were yelling how Obama threw Israel under the bus (agree). We stopped the Jewish men and I took my husband's photo with them. We learned one was a Rabbi. They were interesting guys.
- We went to a 7-11, I needed some chapstick. My husband had a drink so he waited at the door. That's when he saw a guy inside with a t-shirt with writing on the back in arabic and in english it said something about Trump the devil and cut out the devil's tongue. He also had a ginormous suitcase. My husband thought that the cops should probably be aware of it. One of the cops seemed super irritated by the idea and then went off to chat with the guy.
- The walking was just *a lot*. A LOT. Everywhere around the city was blocked off so you couldn't just cross someplace, you had to walk another mile just to get 50 yards. That was maddening. We walked 40,000 steps in 2 days and stood for 6 hours waiting for the inauguration. Very painful for the legs! That also included one taxi ride and one rickshaw ride. I can't even imagine if we'd walked that whole thing.
Over the 2 days we walked 17 miles. Found a really great Chinese restaurant in the process though. Some of the best chinese I've ever had!
- The actual inauguration was really exciting (but tiring). On the way in on the train, we met a disabled vet named Tom. He sat with my husband and me and we chatted. He was a retired marine (but he looked like he was about 25). He served from 97-14 until he was injured. Walked with a cane. Really nice guy. We planned on sticking with him but he got stuck at the train station when he lost his card. We had to go on. Later when we were inside our area (standing area at the front), my husband turns and sees him about 30 feet away! We actually ended up back together and stood together that entire time. He didn't sit once. He was super excited about it all, said it was the first time he ever really got into politics.
- There were TONS of young people there. Very excited to see how many school aged kids came. We stood right next to a group of school kids from Missouri (St Louis, which is about 5 hours from us). Well this young 14 year old girl stood next to me. She was a freshman and probably the most adorable girl I've ever seen in my life. She was very inquisitive and asked lots of questions. I had to explain to her who Jimmy Carter was. lol. I need to talk to her history teacher! She said "I have literally never heard that name before." She was shorter than me, which is really short. When the inauguration started I actually gave her my spot so she could see better. I had a pretty good view but I decided I'd rather she see it than I did, it was more important for her IMO. It's ok, she was short so I could still bob around her head.
- Before the inauguration started, I decided that we should probably make a trip to the bathroom. There was Tom, myself and a guy and his son that was near us. We all trained out of the crowd (porta potties). It was easy going out really. Took about a minute. I went, Tom went, had a smoke (Tom, not me) and then we waited for the other guy who walked out the door and turned the other direction so we lost him. Although, there were 3 high school girls trying to get into a toilet and was too timid to get to the front of the line so I just elbowed them to the front. Worked, they got to pee. ha. We decided that these girls would go back with us so I lead the train and Tom was at the end. I figured I would cut the widest path and my chubby elbows are actually sharp haha. It took too MUCH longer to go back and met with a bunch of resistance along the way but you'd be surprised how nice people can be though when you smile at them, pat them on the back and apologize a lot. One woman was basically "HELL NO" when I said we were just passing through. We went another direction and made it back in about 10 minutes.
- I don't think you could hear it on TV but there was a LOT of chanting, cheers and jeers from the crowd during the speeches. Charles Schumer had to speak louder because of the chanting and boos. His speech didn't go over very well.
- There was a lot of positive energy going around too. Don't think it was all Trump supporters standing there. (for the record we're very "meh" on Trump). There were girls from Georgetown right next to us. Clearly not Trump supporters but they were not hassled a bit and seemed to really interested in what was going on there. I actually took a photo of them after it was over with the capitol.
- The inaugural parade was something else. It didn't seem to last long and then many people left. We were seated resting and then all the sudden it started back up again!! I think there was some sort of technical glitch because there was probably a 15 minute gap in the parade then Mike Pence showed up. After he went by, there was another lull so we finally left (so tired). Pretty sure we missed more of the parade so I'm kind of bummed about that, but I had to get moving because I had probably 2-3 more miles to walk at that point!!
- I'd say one of my highlights of the trip was getting to meet my Congressman. He actually is from a town very near me (about 30 min away). He had an open house in his office the day before with all his staff. They acted like they knew us very well before we even got there. Well, about 2 weeks beforehand I had decided I wanted to do something big! I decided to paint a portrait of my Congressman as a gift. In part as a thank you for the tickets and his service to my community. I also thought it would be neat if another Congressman/woman were to visit his office, they might see it and want one too!! So we carried around this framed portrait the ENTIRE DAY (well my husband did). When we get there, he's not there! I was disappointed but I understood. I kind of sprung it on them. He had been out of town and was flying in but no one knew if he was going to make it in or not. I showed them the painting and they were all excited. His son and daughter were there and they all loved it too. Apparently someone called him and let him know what was up so he made a SPECIAL trip to his office just to see this painting! I was seriously so flattered. There were other constituents there that were probably more wealthy, more powerful than us but he walked straight up to us bypassing everyone else and really greeted us warmly. He truly loved it. He couldn't stop smiling and looking at it. Put it on a shelf right next to his desk (apparently you can't hang your own artwork because they are union in DC so he has to have someone come do it for him. lol).
We took photos (they took some for us because my camera died!) and he said he wanted to give me a ride in one of his war birds (he's a pilot). I said YES and he promised to fly upside down, which terrifies me but I'm an adventurer so I'll totally do it even if I think I'm going to die in the process. lol. I really hope they remember and invite me to do so. He said he'd have his scheduler contact me.
Here we are with the painting.
(sorry it's so large!)
I told my husband that I love doing portraits like this, because no matter what, someone might take down the original photo, or all the other memorabilia, but they won't toss a painting like this. It's an instant heirloom.
- We left DC on Saturday and as we were leaving we saw a TON of buses going into the city! We ended up in Philadelphia visiting my BIL/SIL. We've never been able to visit them before - this is my first trip to the northeast. We flew back out of PHL the next day and was home Sunday afternoon. I told my husband it felt like we'd been gone MUCH longer than just 5 days. It felt good to be home and sleep in my own bed!
I've not edited my pics yet, but if I have any good ones I'll try to remember to share if anyone wants to see them!
So years ago I met a woman who was talking about a local resident. She told me how she had tickets to the Inauguration of Bill Clinton, but didn't go. I'll never forget how I thought that was the craziest thing I'd ever heard! From that point on, it was my goal to go to an Inauguration. Bucket list material for sure.
The past few years I've really busted my hump trying to fulfill my bucket list items (there really is a real life list).
So when Trump was elected I thought about it and decided it would be a good chance to go. On a whim I wrote my congressman and requested tickets. A few weeks later, I got words that I'd been one of the selected constituents to make it! My husband and I sat and had a conversation about it and discussed our worries (protests) and decided that we should go and not let the threat of violence keep us from going. I had no idea if things would be perfectly fine or if we were up for a good ass beating.
Last Wednesday we left and returned on Sunday afternoon. Here's some of my random observations.
- Despite the "bad weather" that everyone thought we were going to have and had a great big chuckle about it, it barely sprinkled 3-4 times. No real rain at all. I will admit that when I opened the curtains the next morning and saw rain/fog/cloudy day I had a chuckle.
- There was pretty much no protesters either Thursday or Friday. A hand full really. Thursday there was a group of 4 - 20-somethings singing "we will overcome". When they got closer to us (we were the only ones there) they started chanting "Fuck Trump .... and his supporters." I'm pretty sure it was directed at us. We just ignored and crossed the street to see the white house. Later we saw them again near the Washington Monument hassling a street vendor who looked really shaken. I feel bad that I didn't stop and talk to the guy now.
- On Friday we only saw a couple people. We did see a silent protest. It was so silent and their signs were so vague that it took me a while to figure out they were actually protesting. We did see 2 young men carrying a flag that said that Trump is a nazi. They were getting interviewed later as we passed by. What those guys weren't prepared for was the 4 Jewish guys that came upon them (we happened to be walking right next to the Jews). The Jews started yelling at the nazi banner guys that they were watering down what really happened to the jews. That Nazi's killed this guy's grandparents. The banner guys high-tailed it out of there as they were yelling how Obama threw Israel under the bus (agree). We stopped the Jewish men and I took my husband's photo with them. We learned one was a Rabbi. They were interesting guys.
- We went to a 7-11, I needed some chapstick. My husband had a drink so he waited at the door. That's when he saw a guy inside with a t-shirt with writing on the back in arabic and in english it said something about Trump the devil and cut out the devil's tongue. He also had a ginormous suitcase. My husband thought that the cops should probably be aware of it. One of the cops seemed super irritated by the idea and then went off to chat with the guy.
- The walking was just *a lot*. A LOT. Everywhere around the city was blocked off so you couldn't just cross someplace, you had to walk another mile just to get 50 yards. That was maddening. We walked 40,000 steps in 2 days and stood for 6 hours waiting for the inauguration. Very painful for the legs! That also included one taxi ride and one rickshaw ride. I can't even imagine if we'd walked that whole thing.
Over the 2 days we walked 17 miles. Found a really great Chinese restaurant in the process though. Some of the best chinese I've ever had!
- The actual inauguration was really exciting (but tiring). On the way in on the train, we met a disabled vet named Tom. He sat with my husband and me and we chatted. He was a retired marine (but he looked like he was about 25). He served from 97-14 until he was injured. Walked with a cane. Really nice guy. We planned on sticking with him but he got stuck at the train station when he lost his card. We had to go on. Later when we were inside our area (standing area at the front), my husband turns and sees him about 30 feet away! We actually ended up back together and stood together that entire time. He didn't sit once. He was super excited about it all, said it was the first time he ever really got into politics.
- There were TONS of young people there. Very excited to see how many school aged kids came. We stood right next to a group of school kids from Missouri (St Louis, which is about 5 hours from us). Well this young 14 year old girl stood next to me. She was a freshman and probably the most adorable girl I've ever seen in my life. She was very inquisitive and asked lots of questions. I had to explain to her who Jimmy Carter was. lol. I need to talk to her history teacher! She said "I have literally never heard that name before." She was shorter than me, which is really short. When the inauguration started I actually gave her my spot so she could see better. I had a pretty good view but I decided I'd rather she see it than I did, it was more important for her IMO. It's ok, she was short so I could still bob around her head.
- Before the inauguration started, I decided that we should probably make a trip to the bathroom. There was Tom, myself and a guy and his son that was near us. We all trained out of the crowd (porta potties). It was easy going out really. Took about a minute. I went, Tom went, had a smoke (Tom, not me) and then we waited for the other guy who walked out the door and turned the other direction so we lost him. Although, there were 3 high school girls trying to get into a toilet and was too timid to get to the front of the line so I just elbowed them to the front. Worked, they got to pee. ha. We decided that these girls would go back with us so I lead the train and Tom was at the end. I figured I would cut the widest path and my chubby elbows are actually sharp haha. It took too MUCH longer to go back and met with a bunch of resistance along the way but you'd be surprised how nice people can be though when you smile at them, pat them on the back and apologize a lot. One woman was basically "HELL NO" when I said we were just passing through. We went another direction and made it back in about 10 minutes.
- I don't think you could hear it on TV but there was a LOT of chanting, cheers and jeers from the crowd during the speeches. Charles Schumer had to speak louder because of the chanting and boos. His speech didn't go over very well.
- There was a lot of positive energy going around too. Don't think it was all Trump supporters standing there. (for the record we're very "meh" on Trump). There were girls from Georgetown right next to us. Clearly not Trump supporters but they were not hassled a bit and seemed to really interested in what was going on there. I actually took a photo of them after it was over with the capitol.
- The inaugural parade was something else. It didn't seem to last long and then many people left. We were seated resting and then all the sudden it started back up again!! I think there was some sort of technical glitch because there was probably a 15 minute gap in the parade then Mike Pence showed up. After he went by, there was another lull so we finally left (so tired). Pretty sure we missed more of the parade so I'm kind of bummed about that, but I had to get moving because I had probably 2-3 more miles to walk at that point!!
- I'd say one of my highlights of the trip was getting to meet my Congressman. He actually is from a town very near me (about 30 min away). He had an open house in his office the day before with all his staff. They acted like they knew us very well before we even got there. Well, about 2 weeks beforehand I had decided I wanted to do something big! I decided to paint a portrait of my Congressman as a gift. In part as a thank you for the tickets and his service to my community. I also thought it would be neat if another Congressman/woman were to visit his office, they might see it and want one too!! So we carried around this framed portrait the ENTIRE DAY (well my husband did). When we get there, he's not there! I was disappointed but I understood. I kind of sprung it on them. He had been out of town and was flying in but no one knew if he was going to make it in or not. I showed them the painting and they were all excited. His son and daughter were there and they all loved it too. Apparently someone called him and let him know what was up so he made a SPECIAL trip to his office just to see this painting! I was seriously so flattered. There were other constituents there that were probably more wealthy, more powerful than us but he walked straight up to us bypassing everyone else and really greeted us warmly. He truly loved it. He couldn't stop smiling and looking at it. Put it on a shelf right next to his desk (apparently you can't hang your own artwork because they are union in DC so he has to have someone come do it for him. lol).
We took photos (they took some for us because my camera died!) and he said he wanted to give me a ride in one of his war birds (he's a pilot). I said YES and he promised to fly upside down, which terrifies me but I'm an adventurer so I'll totally do it even if I think I'm going to die in the process. lol. I really hope they remember and invite me to do so. He said he'd have his scheduler contact me.
Here we are with the painting.
(sorry it's so large!)
I told my husband that I love doing portraits like this, because no matter what, someone might take down the original photo, or all the other memorabilia, but they won't toss a painting like this. It's an instant heirloom.
- We left DC on Saturday and as we were leaving we saw a TON of buses going into the city! We ended up in Philadelphia visiting my BIL/SIL. We've never been able to visit them before - this is my first trip to the northeast. We flew back out of PHL the next day and was home Sunday afternoon. I told my husband it felt like we'd been gone MUCH longer than just 5 days. It felt good to be home and sleep in my own bed!
I've not edited my pics yet, but if I have any good ones I'll try to remember to share if anyone wants to see them!
). 
