lbpost.com columnist Nancy Pfeffer spent a few days in Washington last week and brings us an eyewitness account of a pre-inauguration D.C.
Just a quick (and off-topic) post to share some experiences from this week’s trip to Washington, DC. I went for a major transportation conference, where I saw lots of colleagues, made a few presentations, and crammed still more facts into my brain. I’m sure they will be useful later.
Many people suggested I should extend my trip to catch the inaugural, but I was glad to avoid what surely will be some local chaos. Indeed, the word was that most bridges into and out of DC would be closed to private cars. Metro will run extra subway trains, but still warned passengers to expect “crush conditions.” (The cars I rode, at 9 p.m. on a Wednesday, were crowded already. At least it’s great to visit a city whose transit system is so well used.)
I satisfied myself with soaking up some pre-inaugural excitement, to wit:
The café where I had breakfast one morning advertised that it would remain open 24 hours a day from the 16th through the 19th.
The hotel where I stayed sold Obama t-shirts – and Obama chocolate bars!
In the Chinatown Metro station, IKEA had an apt and clever advertising campaign going on: big yellow banners proclaiming “Embrace Change” and promising “fiscally responsible” financing of purchases.
And my personal favorite: Barack Obama’s smiling face on my Metro ticket. Normally at the last station when the fare’s used up, you don’t get the ticket back, so I put an extra ten cents’ worth of fare on it and retrieved my keepsake.
I truly wish I could be at the Inaugural. This is a dramatic and hopeful moment for our country, something we’re badly in need of. When Obama won, I cried listening to his acceptance speech. I will probably cry some more watching the inaugural at home – from my safe, warm, uncrowded family room. But in spirit I’ll still be shivering in Washington, DC, crushed in a crowd, watching history be made.