This past week my family and I traveled across the USA from blizzardy Seattle to Arlington, VA, for a visit with family who live there and work in DC. Some of the great highlights of our trip were walking the National Mall and checking out the monuments, spending a day at the Smithsonian (yet not even scratching the surface), and getting a chance to see up close and personal the inauguration preparations.
Enjoy the photos of the preparations underway all around Obama’s new home. And then a few extra which will make this inauguration especially meaningful for me. (None of the people in the pictures are of my family or me, BTW. Just innocent bystanders enjoying the sites!)
What I realized as I took in the construction site is that there isn’t much room for a whole lot of people. Maybe it’s because of the visions of the overwhelmingly huge crowds Obama drew during the campaign trail, but I just don’t see the space for the 250,000 people who have tickets for the ceremony.
. . .
Here’s the Blair House right across the street from the White House. Whomever is staying here so that Obama couldn’t move in a few days early didn’t show their faces. I hung out with my camera hoping. News has it that Obama will be hunkered down at an undisclosed hotel in DC instead. My family and I walked by a huge hotel just seconds from the White House where world leaders and dignitaries stay. My brother (who works in DC) is predicting the security there will be enough for Obama and that is where he will probably be moving this weekend.
. . .
And here’s the other side of the White House from the National Mall. Since it was my first visit to DC, I was quite shocked, actually, that the White House is right in the middle of everything. Most pictures from TeeVee or books show the house with just the beautiful green lawn. So I've always envisioned the White House being in the middle of this beautiful wooded area .. when in fact it is not. I felt claustrophobic for Obama and his family.
. . .
So as the world waits in anticipation of the most memorable inauguration in our nation’s history, some of the sights that moved me during my visit to DC will make January 20th especially meaningful as I watch the events on high def big screen from the comfort of my home back in Washington State.
Obama plans to begin the events at the Lincoln Memorial.
The memorial is also where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech, and the event comes a day before the nation celebrates the King holiday on January 19.
"It is one of the great, patriotic symbols of our country," Presidential Inaugural Committee spokeswoman Linda Douglass said Friday. "It's a symbol of the American spirit; it's a symbol of unity; it's a symbol of our values. So for all those reasons it's an appropriate place to celebrate an inauguration that is really built around celebrating our common values as a people."
Obama's affection for Lincoln is truly reflective in these words.
. . .
When I visited the Arlington National Cemetery, the resting place of JFK moved me to tears. This statement from JFK's inaugural address on January 20, 1961 (etched directly behind his gravesite) reminds me of Obama and all he has asked us to do the past two years .. to find a way to give back to our country.
. . .
And here’s Borders Book store in DC. I bought this issue of the Washingtonian to add to my stack of other Obama memorabilia magazines I’ve collected over the past 2 years.
. . .
I don't know why, but this is just one of my favorite pictures from my trip. My husband says it's because of the phallic symbolism .. LOL. Wherever you go in DC, you can see Washington's Monument. It's breathtaking.
. . .
Happy January 20th, everyone! In my opinion, the Presidential Inauguration (of any incoming President) should be a national holiday.