Pre-Inauguration festivities

It’s the end of lazy weekends. Friday Jill took her board exam (we won’t know the result for several weeks), then we went out with friends to Ted’s Montana Grill. It was nice catching up, and I enjoyed a tasty bison burger (Jill had the pot roast).

Saturday we had some cleaning to do, and got done just in time for our friends Bill (Mayor of Shantytowne) and Kerry to arrive from St. Louis. We chatted for a while (and shared some Paul Simon worship) before we went to bed.

Early Sunday morning three of Jill’s cousins (and a wife) arrived from Massachusetts. They slept for a bit as we got up and made breakfast, then headed downtown about 9:30. We parked in Rosslyn, and took the Metro over to Smithsonian. We walked over to the Lincoln Memorial, and had picked a nice spot about as close as possible (for the non VIPs) by 11. Killing a couple hours was not hard with a big group, we got food (Obamadogs!) and kept warm.

Bill, Kerry, Jill and Meg

The show started promptly at 2:30, and it was certainly the best show I’ve seen on the Mall. Best quote was from a woman standing near us when Denzel came out: Oh my god, Denzel and Obama? Now I can die”. Bruce Springsteen was moving and U2 was rocking, but I would never have guessed the guy who got the crowd going was Garth Brooks covering “American Pie” and “Shout”. It was a lot of fun, and it wasn’t too bad getting out, did take us a while to get to L’Enfant and out of the city.

Lauren & Kai

We left Kerry going the other way, and headed back to Rosslyn to get the cars, then over to the Birchmere. We had time to get food (we split a spinach salad, Jill had a burger and I had the Reuben) before Red Molly came out. It was the first time I’d seen them outside Falcon Ridge, and they were really good.

My sister got there during their set, but we got back in before their great closer, May I Suggest. Eddie From Ohio had an excellent show, pulling out rarities (“Hail Mary Shy Of Redemption” and “Long Walk Home”) and new songs by Mike (“Heel Of The Bread”) and Robbie (“Monroe OH” and “Carolina”). On the encore, Red Molly joined them, and the highlight of the show was their cover of Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times Come Again No More”. I stayed up watching the football games when we got back, then crashed like everyone else.

efo

Today we all slept in, then Jill made French Toast for breakfast. We took Illa to the kennel and ran some errands in the afternoon, then Lauren and Kai cooked us Thai noodles for dinner. Now hopefully I make it to bed soon as we’ve got an early wakeup time tomorrow.