Sing-a-long in the Hay-Adams Bar: My Trip to the 2009 Inauguration
Monday, January 19 - Walking Tour of Washington
On Monday morning, Jeff and I went to downtown DC while Rachel went to work. We arrived at the National Portrait Gallery just after 10...only to see that it didn't open until 11:30. Oh well. We walked through Chinatown and got some fresh pork buns. The Verizon Center was being set-up for some Inaugural event or another as vendors were having their vehicles sniffed by police dogs. We got drinks at McDonald's (which was mobbed) and stopped at Gallery Place.
The Portrait Gallery was busy. It was neat to see the full-sized iconic Obama Hope poster near the entrance. We went through the Civil War Gallery, the President's Gallery, the President-in-Waiting Gallery and part of the Women of Our Time gallery. It was interesting that a talented woman who was an alcoholic and died young of a drug overdose (Judy Garland) was the woman whose photo opened the gallery. *sigh*
Around 1, we went back into Chinatown and had a terrific lunch Chinatown Express (it had roasted duck in the window - something you never see at Chinese restaurants in Pittsburgh). I had duck and Jeff went for the homemade noodles, which were also excellent. By the time we left, the line into the restaurant extended out onto the sidewalk.
Since we knew there was no way to get anywhere near the Capitol in Inauguration day, we walked near it on Monday. There were many people in that area. Many trucks loaded with crowd control equipment surrounded the Capital side of the Mall:
The Canadian embassy was all decked out for an Inaugural party.
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| Jeff Near the Capitol | Laurie Near the Capitol |
© 2009 Photo by Laurie D. T. Mann