It is after 4 pm and we've just arrived back from a rather adventorous day. We left at 9 am to hop on the Columbia Heights train. It was breeze coming in but chaotic coming back. Once we got downtown, we immediately went to find our ticketed Blue Gate entrance. Practice makes perfect. Once there, the city wasn't too crowded until we got to the capitol, what an amazing site. We took pictures of where Obama will be sworn in and we took pictures of where the Congress will be seated. I was so excited. From there, we went touring at stopped at DC's newest stop, the Newseum. The Newseum is a a complete museum dedicated to news and journalism. In front of the building, along with the large crowds, were front page headlines of the Obama's in Washington after the concert yesterday. All 50 states were represented and of course I recorded everything and stopped at no other place but NORTH CAROLINA.
While sight seeing, I took pictures of the Canadian Embassy and then something strange occurred. My cousin Rainey pointed out a homeless man who was laying on the sidewalk in a sleeping bag and was being passed over by crowds of tourists. I stopped to give him some of my hand warmers and discovered that his name was Hank. I took his picture and told him to take care. I didn't have any food to give him but it seemed sad in a way that tourists overlooked him on the day that Obama called for National Service. I hope that even after I left people would have been moved to help Hank in anyway they could. It was cold outside.
Once we left Hank, we proceeded to the White House and on the way saw protestors calling for the end of the Iraq War and the closing of Gitmo. Once we got closer the White House, which had now been blockaded by the Secret Service, who I must say were looking sharp and serious,we saw a group of Christian Anti-Abortion activists. It seemed to me that the activists were placed in a contained area :).
We then took the Metro into Union Station to eat at acclaimed African-American restaraunteer, B. Smith's restaurant. We were able to take a pic with her at the restaurant. It was awesome. I forgot to say that we were interviewed by a Canadian reporter about our trip to DC. That was really cool. Now the true started as we headed back home. Police were out in full force and protestors were laying on the floor in the middle of Union Station. The police broke that up but I did get a kick out of telling the lady laying on the ground, that she needed to get up before she got arrested :) then I took a picture of her.
Going home, people were getting frustrated because the crowds were massive. People were pushing. Trains went out of service because people weren't acting right. Tomorrow should be interesting. I'm exhausted and my thighs hurt. Goodnight for now.
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