The sign says it all.
In front of the Department of Interior.
The inauguration concert on the mall is just starting. I went down to see it, but decided to pull the plug pretty quickly.
It's not that it's cold -- 29 degrees is not bad.
It's the crowds. Too. Damn. Many. People.
The cops are out in force, with Humvees and reserve troops at all the intersections, along with cops, ambulances, helicopters, and squads of young people with walkie-talkies trying to manage folks to stay behind the barriers and file in a line.
Everything is nice and orderly, but the whole thing has a cattle-in-the-chute feel to it, and that's not my thing. I quickly realized that once I got inside the cordoned-off area, there was going to be no guarantee I would be able to see anything except some fat guy's ski hat.
I will buy the album.
Tomorrow I am hitting the farms for some sanity with the dogs.
While crossing Key Bridge (they have not closed it off yet), I noticed that the river is starting to freeze over. That's an optimistic sign.
The River, Bruce Springsteen :: link
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2 comments:
Crowds make me so anxious you couldn't give me tickets for something like this. TV will have to do.
Springsteen ... ooohhhhh.
A friend of mine was happily in the thick of it today, though.
I couldn't believe you were actually planning to attend the concert.
Remember the Saturday after Christmas in DC where the temperature went to the 60s? As my sister-in-law is from a town of 300 in Iowa, she hasn't seen most of the sights of the East Coast, so the extended family hopped on Amtrak to see the Smithsonian(s).
We could not get into the American History Museum -- the line went around the block -- at all entrances! There was a line to get into Air & Space, but it moved quickly -- however, I don't think I've ever seen so many people in one building in my life. Unfortunately, there isn't much to see in the American Indian Museum, so that didn't take long, but the cafe was so crowded, we ended up eating standing up. Luckily, we went to Natural History first, so we saw everything we wanted to see before the rug rats took it over (;-)). The only quiet was in the Sacker Gallery -- who knew that Asian Art isn't popular? ;-)
The Mall was jammed, jammed, jammed, just with people out for a walk in the nice day. It did appear that other folks had the same idea we did (take the visiting relatives to the sights), but we figured it things were that crowded for an "unimportant" day, Heaven help us all if there was actually a "reason" to come to the Mall.
Glad you got home safely!
Dorene
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