Diary of a Mad Fabri-Holic: Inaugu-palooza

(Title shamelessly borrowed from Jon Stewart and The Daily Show.)

(Caveat: if you only want the pix and not the long drawn out story, go here or here- see 1/19, 1/20 and 1/21-22- also- if you want more pix than are in this post, see above!)

Wow.

How tiring the trip to DC for Inauguration Day was can be seen in how long it's taken me to get around to blogging about it.

But what can't be seen from my week's delay was how incredibly amazing it was. How often in life does something live up to expectations? This did. Before we left I was worried about how Annie would handle the trip. I was worried about how we would manage the logistics. I was worried about making it through the crowds. And I was really worried about someone in that crowd stepping on my toe. And guess what? All my worries were for naught! Everything went amazingly well, and my toe didn't even get stepped on, and we shared an amazing moment in history with 1.8 million of our new best friends.

I know I am not a blogger who can do this trip justice, so I'm going to give you the uber brief synopsis.

Sunday 1/18: we left at the crack of dawn- before it, in fact. Lesson learned: do not connect in Phoenix Skyport if you have to change airlines as this means a) a shuttle bus to change terminals and b) clearing security a second time. We made it to DC with no other issues. Here we had the only letdown of our trip: we arrived far too late in the day to make it to the We Are One concert. And we heard, from my cousin who was there, that the concert was as fabulous as the Inauguration itself. Ah, well. We made it to my Great Aunt Millie's house, and were greeted by a dinner of my favorite childhood food: halupki (stuffed cabbages).

Monday 1/19: Aunt Millie's granddaughters (my younger cousins) and their kids joined us for breakfast at her place. It was crazy with 3 kids under 3, but wonderful as I had not met any of the little ones in person yet.

This was the first time Annie has been old enough to remember meeting everyone.

After family reunion #1, Annie and I hopped the Metro downtown. Annie's phenomenal Metro luck started with new friend #1: photographer Tim Shaffer, who works for Reuters showed her his press pass and told her all about parties and events he was photographing.

Downtown, we rode the carousel and explored the National Mall. My cousin Emily and her dad Jim joined us for DC fun and family reunion #2 (Em now lives in Philly and Jim in Pittsburgh. Emily grew up in Alexandria, and I went to high school in McLean, so we know our way around.) It was so much fun to show everything to Annie.

She got to see the Capital, Washington Monument, White House, National Christmas Tree, Old Post Office Building, the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, Soledad O'Brien live and in person, MSNBC's booth, George Washington himself, and 10,000 port-a-potties. Most exciting of all was just to see DC so full of energy and excitement, so full of people there to celebrate a new moment in history, and also, to cash in on it by selling every Obama item you could imagine (and some I hope you couldn't!)

The people were amazing. So many people, so happy, so friendly, so kind. People were from EVERYWHERE. We met folks from all over the country. We talked to everyone- it is much easier to do this when you have an adorable 7 year old who is doing a paper for school. Annie's amazing Metro luck continued when she met a congresswoman's press secretary from Florida who let her check out an official inauguration ticket and program. A few minutes later, Annie also met our new friend Elaine, who works in film in LA.

Then back to suburban VA, where we spent the night at the home of my folks' best friends, Ed and Cathy. We went with them and their son Scott and daughter-in-law Anne to Panera, and had simply a blast. New friends are just the most wonderful souvenir from any trip, and Anne is no exception!

Tuesday 1/20: the day started at 4:30 am, when we got up! Yikes! Our hosts Ed and Cathy got up with us, made us scrambled eggs and english muffins and tea, and drove us to the Metro. Truly, the best hosts EVER. Annie and I wore our matching Obama tees, and our brand new Obama hats. Then, we bundled Annie into her snow pants and many many many layers, and bravely headed out. Getting downtown was way easier than we feared- the train was not packed, we did not have a wait, and we easily walked from Metro to the Mall. We got ourselves a great place by a jumbotron on the Mall, right in front of the Natural History Museum.

Then, we waited for several (cold) hours.

In a crowd that happy, and it was that happy, you tend to make friends with your neighbors. This crowd was no exception. The folks next to us were wonderful! They shared handwarmers with Annie. They had a camp stool, and let her stand on it- saving my back untold agony. They chatted with her and generally were simply wonderful. And, we found out, one of our new friends, Tina Gloss, is an actress from LA who was on one of Rich and my favorite TV shows ever! Wow...

Annie and I were also very near one of the crowd-panning cameras- we think for CNN, and Helen thinks she may truly have seen us on TV- in Australia!!

The experience was electric- to be with that many people all wanting the same thing... It was the acceptance speech at Mile High times 20 and then some. There was one very interesting difference, however. At Mile High, the crowd was euphoric and hopeful. In DC, we were euphoric and hopeful, but also, more subdued and serious. After all, the America Obama has inherited has changed an awful lot since last August. The work ahead is going to be much harder and more challenging now. It's time for everyone to buckle down and do what it takes to get our country back on track. Me, I'm putting affordable and accessible health care for all at the top of my list. (Got that, Santa? You've got 11 months...)

After the speech, the wonderful speech, Annie and I fought through the crowd and hit the Natural History Museum again. The Smithsonians did an amazing job of handling the crowds (fabulous clean bathrooms) and they even let tired folks sleep in their halls. Now, there is something I've never seen before in DC!

After checking out the Hall of Mammals, we tried to get out of DC before the parade crowds were also getting on Metro. This was the only bad part of the trip- getting to an open Metro station and then safely getting into one... The crowd was so bad, and pushy, that I had to enlist a soldier's help in making certain Annie did not get pulled away from me. She didn't, and once we were in Metro, it was an easy ride back to the Vienna station- we even had seats the whole way!

Our Inaugural Day ended at McDonald's- a reward for a very tired and very tough 7 year old! We were able to view the parade on the scratchy TV bolted to their wall... While we had planned to return to
Aunt Millie's that night, we were far too tired to safely make the drive. So, one more night with Ed and Cathy :-)

Weds 1/21: We had breakfast with Ed and Cathy and headed back to Aunt Millie's. Then- a big treat! Ellen came all the way from New Jersey to visit with us for the day!

We took her to our favorite restaurant in the world- a Turkish place in Georgetown owned by a good family friend. Delicious food!!!

And then, thanks to a heads up from Amy at the Calico Cat, we went to the Obama quilt exhibit at the Historical Society of Washington DC. It was fabulous, but no photos allowed of the quilts... Annie's patience for grown up stuff was all done by this point, so we walked to Chinatown, looked into one more museum, stopped to check out a new arrival,

and hit Starb*cks for a pick-me-up. Then, back to Aunt Millie's- but we forgot all about rush hour- and had lots of bonding and chatting time in the car... Aunt Millie stuffed us full of 3 kinds of dinner, and Ellen headed back to Newark. We were so sad to see her go- now I miss her more. Ellen, come back!

Thurs 1/22: before flying home, we took a trip with Aunt Millie to visit 3 more Great Aunts- Barbara, Pearl and Rosalie. (My grandma was one of 13 kids...7 still living.) Family Reunion #3- 3 in 5 days! I think we did pretty well. We visited with the Aunties and then returned Millie to her home. We said our goodbyes, and then Annie and I had a lunch date with our next-door-no-more neighbors who moved to VA just a few weeks ago. So good to see them, but now, we miss them even more- a theme is appearing here, huh?

And then home. We flew home through Charlotte this time, and no major issues. Rich and Henry picked us up at the airport at 10:30pm, and we went home and collapsed into our own beds.

I have no idea how to talk about this trip. It was amazing. It was totally worth it. Hopefully, we were there at the moment when America got back on track. Hopefully, Annie will remember this for life and grow up to be an engaged citizen participant in her government. And hopefully, the next historic inauguration will be of our first female president!

3 Comments

It was worth the drive! I had a great day with you and Annie. On the moving back part... know anyone who'd buy a house that isn't worth what we bought it for? No? Me neither. Guess we'll be here for a while.

Posted by: Ellen | February 01, 2009 at 09:40 PM