We got back home around Midnight last night. I thought I would give a quick report back since we got so much helpful advice from this list.
Wow - it was cold, real cold (we were told 19 degrees). It might not be too far off to say that this list literally saved my life. I see now that even the thought of going back there without gloves, or without a real winter coat, was absurd. We took all the layering advice and it paid off. We were outside from 5:45 in the am until 2:00 pm, and while we felt cold for much of that time, there were only a few periods when it seemed intolerable - mostly when we forced to stand still, and the sun ducked behind a cloud, or the wind picked up. Fortunately it did not snow or rain on Tuesday, and I just went with my sneakers (over some industrial strength wool socks). I got everyone in the family those knit Obama ski hats from the Obama campaign web site for Christmas, and they were pretty functional. The women in the family had scarves. We got to DC about 2:15 pm on Sunday- later than we had planned. My wife dropped me and my oldest daughters off at K and 21st street, which was as close as the police/infantry would let us get, and we walked the rest of the way. It was so crowded inside that by then they were not letting more people in, but we stood out on Constitution Ave with maybe 10 or 20 thousand other people and were able to hear the music quite well (though we could not see anything). I think as we walked up Tiger Woods was just finishing. I was happy with what we got to hear (one of the highlights of the entire trip for me was Pete Seeger singing "This Land is Your Land" - for my daughters it was Beyonce singing America the Beautiful). As it turned out this worked out better than my plan of taking the Metro and taxi to the Lincoln Memorial, since we would have had to walk a long way to get to someplace where we could get a Taxi. As it was, we just called my wife, she drove to K and 19th street, and we were off (to the "Adams Morgan" area, where we walked around, looked in shops, and had Ethiopian food for dinner). The Obama website had a real convinient link to a place to sign up for volunteer projects on Monday, and we had a great time working on all Monday morning. Through the beneificience of a good friend my daughters were able to get to a fancy dinner Monday night and had a genuine blast, seeing lots of famous people. My wife and I had dinner in Georgetown that night. We also were fortunate enough to be given tickets to the ceremony on Tuesday, so we all got to stand pretty close. The lines were long and the space was crowded and packed, but I have never in my life been around so many happy people. It really was a joyous occasion. I'm sure we missed some details that were pointed out on television (I am going to try to watch my recorded coverage on CBS and MSNBC tonight) but we heard every word clearly from the podium, saw everything on stage clearly (either directly or on the Big Screen) and we really got the experience of being there live. I am glad we took the plunge to go on the long pilgramage to the other side of the continent, even when most people told us we were crazy to bother. It really was something to laugh and cry and hug complete strangers and share a hundred little stories with people who were there from all over the country - and indeed the world. By accident my son and I also got to wittness the Bush farewell, as we walked around the other side of the Capital to get to our family rendevous at Union Station and stumbled upon Obama saying goodbye to Bush, and then them getting on the helicopter. The worst part of the whole trip - and my biggest mistake - was trying to meet at Union Station. The place was a madhouse, and impossible to get in and out of. I hooked up with my daughters, but gave up on my wife, and we just met up at the suburban Metro station (it turned out we had been on the same train but could not find each other). We bagged the parade and started driving back to Manhatten, stopping over for dinner at a seafood place in Baltimore that a friend had recommended. The excitement of that leg of our trip was that they decided to close the New Jersey Turnpike because of some terrorist alert (we did not ever get the entire story, and only got part of it at the tail end, but apparently they had reason to suspect that a young many had bombs in his car, and was planning on blowing up some part of the Turnpike?). We were glad we were being kept safe, but could have used a little help in finding an alternative route to Manhattan (and yes, if you are like my wife and asking over and over if I regretted being too cheap to get the GPS in the rental car, I was at this point). What should have been a 4.5 hour drive turned into something more like 7.0, but we eventually got back and had a great time the next day getting my daugther settled and enjoying her little neighborhood there in Morningside Heights (her Dorm room overlooks Broadway). I got up early to buy her textbooks, so I treated myself to breakfast at the Seinfeld Diner (Tom's). Thanks for all the advice. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ TV or Not TV .... Smart (TV) People on Ice! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. 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