The Day Before the Inauguration

On Monday, January 19, 2009, the day before the inauguration, Jen and I took the Metro to D.C. and explored the newest museum of the Smithsonian, the Museum of the American Indian. It was very interesting seeing the various cultures and their traditional belief systems and stories.

(The image above was an interesting piece that has the U.S. states listed in the blue field and Native American tribe names in the stripes.) We ate at the cafeteria in the museum which features native foods. It was interesting and delicious. We didn't have time to finish seeing the whole museum and resolved to return before our trip back to San Francisco. As we left the museum, we went by the MSNBC booth which was set up on the national mall. We managed to see Chris Matthews and Jen was in the crowd as the live camera swung by us.

(In the above picture, Matthews' back is to the camera.) The sense of anticipation was palpable as the crowds milled around the mall and vendors hawked Obama-themed items of every sort including thermal underwear!

We traveled to U Street where we met up with Bobbie Sue, another Obama fellow whom I had worked with in Toledo and her husband, Scott who also had been heavily involved with the campaign. They, of course, were in Washington to see the inauguration. We ate at a nice Ethiopian restaurant. The food was good, but we agreed that the Blue Nile in Ann Arbor, Michigan is our favorite Ethiopian restaurant. It was very nice to see them and catch up.

After that, we returned to the Chinatown area to meet up with Tim and Kelly (our hosts). We ended up staying out considerably later than we had planned in the frigid weather, so we didn't get much sleep before the start the very long inauguration day. Thank goodness a local Starbucks was staying open for 24 hours due to the large crowds, so that we had a place to get somewhat warmed up and sit down.