We are back from Washington and the inauguration celebration.  What an incredible experience to see so many people in such a good mood!  It really was amazing to see such a huge mass of humanity and feel the positive energy in Washington this week.

We went to a ball on Sunday night at the historic All Souls Untitarian chuch which was so much fun.  The band called, The Northeast Corridor was terriffic and had the house rockin’!  Earlier in the day we headed to the mall to be part of the celebration at the Lincoln Memorial.  Needless to say we didn’t get close to the event, truth be told, we couldn’t even get near a jumbotron but could hear Bono, Bruce and the many other mucsians that took part.

Monday we walked all around town and got a close up look at the Capitol where the swearing in would take place, the parade route and the viewing stand in front of the White House where the Obama’s would watch the festivities.  We knew there would be no way to see these areas on Tuesday.  Our next stop was the Vietnam War Memorial that my friend Lynn had never seen.  Visiting this monument is always so moving and there were thousands of people walking that wall which starts very low with that single name and then grows to well over your head with the tens of thousands of names and then lowering again to a single name.  Very powerful.   We then headed to the Corcoran to see the Avedon exhibit but were disappointed to see that there was a private party going on which for some reason did not have our names on the guest list…I wonder what happened!

On Tuesday we had tickets to a breakfast hosted by the American Music Association were we would watch the swearing in with a group of people.  When we got to the Marriott, the breakfast had been cancelled!  It was too late to head for the Mall since they had already started to turn people away because of the capacity limit by 9 am.  We went back to our friend’s home and watched the swearing in there and then took off to the Mall.  We attended a reception at the Rayburn Office Building hosted by a NY congressman after the swearing in and then just walked around catching a bit of the parade and just taking it all in.

We ended the night with a great meal in Chinatown and a late night drive all over Washington checking out all of the ball venues and the beautiful city of Washington at night on this most historic night.  A wonderful 3 days!  Thanks to our hosts Susan and Mark.  Your home is beautiful and your hospitality overwhelming.  Thanks to our friends Stasia and Anne Marie for the loan of toasty fur lined boots to keep our feet warm…oh did I mention it was freezing all three days!

Here are a few images for now of the sites seen from Sunday thru Tuesday.  More to come on my Flickr account.