The other thing that I hadn't appreciated when I booked the hotel, was that there was going to be an Inauguration kick off concert at the Lincoln Memorial. They hadn't announced it until later in the week (probably to stop many more millions of people pouring into DC), but I kicked myself as soon as they did. We decided to drive back from Philly in the morning and try and get to the Lincoln memorial in time for the 2:30pm start.
We parked at Pentagon City Mall as there is a metro station there, as well as a food court as we were starving. Unfortunately everywhere was packed - except McDonald's. I've now had my bi-annual BigMac. I guess you need to have one every couple of years just to remind you how yukky they are! I was very brave and managed to get down the two small escalators (I have a massive phobia about going down them!) to the platform. We got off at L'Enfant Plaza and made our way to the National Mall (only stopping to buy Stephen a Barack Obama hat). There were thousands upon thousands of people milling the entire length of the Mall, having a look at the seats laid out by the Capitol building for the swearing in ceremony on Tuesday and watching the jumbo-tron screens showing the concert. We walked down towards the Washington Monument soaking up the atmosphere, and pausing when there was an act singing. I was getting quite teary whenever someone sang something patriotic (which was everything!). I think it must be my age - I'm becoming really sentimental!
We rounded the Washington Monument and looked down towards the Lincoln Memorial. There was just a sea of people in front of us all the way down both sides of the Reflecting Pool. More welling up from softy Spark! I am so glad that we came back from Philly to go. The atmosphere was fantastic, and there's a real sense of history being made and celebrated. It was a star-studded line up - U2, Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, John Mellencamp, Bruce Springsteen - to name just a few. Everyone gathered around the jumbo-tron's were singing away and whooping.
Getting home was rather fun! I was trying to persuade Stephen that the Smithsonian metro stop would be best as it has stairs as well as an escalator down to the main concourse (ie the big, steep part), but there was a huge queue to get to the entrance and he wasn't overly keen to wait. We did try to pick up a cab, but there weren't many to be found, so we eventually ended back at L'Enfant Plaza. Stephen pointed out there there were loads of people going down, so I couldn't see the bottom of the escalator and couldn't see how high it was. Fair enough, he's right, it might not be so bad. Just as we were going to get on as the crowd had thinned, a policeman stepped in front of us and stopped us getting on as the platform below was too crowded. Crap! This put us at the front of the queue - not good from a not being able to see how high it was perspective!! We let a few people go in front of us. By the time the policeman stepped aside there was quite a crowd - and everyone began to push to get on. OMG this was totally my worst nightmare come true. Everyone shoving me towards the top of a high escalator which I was terrified of getting on anyway! Stephen got on first, but we got separated. I was on my own and had no choice. The pair on hands on my shoulders shoving me on made sure of that!!
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