Possibly one of My Dumber Decisions...

So I gave Cookie the day (Inauguration Day) off many months ago (right after the election). This was before the true cold had set in. When I foolishly thought that it would be okay to take the kids down to witness history. This was also back before Den found out about the trip that would take him out of the country for the entire week.

So I was DYING to go down and check everything out. We had talked about going on Saturday before Den left town, but at 12 degrees, it was just too cold. Today it finally warmed up to almost 40 and so I woke Josie from her nap by walking in her room (and she popped up) and we took off around 3:30 for DC.

Not sure how well you can see it (this is a jumbotron that was located in the far right of the picture, the red circle), but I highlighted our route in yellow. We got off at Federal Center south, walked up by the Botanic Garden and through the 'Blue Gate'--start on the left side of the screen. First I went where the top yellow arrow was and then backtracked and decided to try going where I saw the throngs of people on the other side of the fence. The first photo of us was taken at the end of the little 'hanging' arrow nearest to the Capitol --located at the bottom of the photo (a nice guy clearly not used to kids kept trying to get one with them both looking and so I have several photos). Then I backtracked again and continued on my path. Stopped to take the jumbotron photo--red spot on the right) and continued down to get over to the mall. The next red spot is where Eddie decided to break down. It was about 5pm, we'd been outside in 40 degree weather for about 40 minutes and he just started to sob.

He was cold, hungry and had to go to the bathroom. This was where my plan was not so good. All the museums were closing. The porta john was not the worst I'd seen, but I was still grossed, but thankful it was handicapped and I could bring the stroller in with us and not have Eddie exposed in the cold. The furthest out red triangle is where CNN and MSNBC are stationed. Right on 7th on the mall. We walked past them when there was a pretty tiny crowd. Killed me as I wanted to check them out, but by this point Josie was wailing (I think because Eddie was) and my mom instinct kicked in as I practically mowed people down to head up 7th to the metro. People let me get in front with Eddie screaming, so we didn't have much of a problem getting in the metro system and an empty train came right away. I do live here after all and have favorite stations for a reason.

In spite of all this, I was so glad we went. Eddie felt better on the train where he started to warm up and I broke the METRO rules allowing he and J to munch on the snacks I'd brought. Eddie promised that the next time I told him it was cold and he needed to wear a hat and gloves and not just his hood and a single shirt, that he would listen to me. We'll see how long that memory persists. For the record, I did bring hats and gloves for both kids. Josie usually wore her gloves and hood and Eddie finally agreed to his gloves and hat.

I debated about the best place to focus (the mall is deceptively large and long and with Josie in the Ergo on my back and Eddie in the travel stroller, I wasn't going to be covering a lot of ground). Bad mama changed Josie out of the fleece lined pants that kept falling off her bottom, but were so long they would have done a good job covering her legs and put her in pants that left about 3 inches of skin exposed such that I kept tugging at her pants as I carried her along, trying to cover the distance. I should have put her in tights as I originally planned.

Traffic was a mess and just got worse as the afternoon wore on. People were all over, but it didn't feel very crowded. I expected to see more tour buses, but not the 18-wheelers full of barricades and the crane lowering highway barricades into place. All of the streets immediately in front of the capitol were closed and they were instead filled with people. Folks really were from all over, funny you could kind of guess where from based on their dress. Some people were ready for sub-zero temps and a few were dressed for a normal DC cold Jan. day. Everyone was just on a high, in a super good mood and excited to be there.

I think we'll probably head to Alexandria's market square tomorrow unless by some miracle Cookie decides to come over. I will be so livid if she doesn't go downtown--I was giving her the day off so she could see it all in person. If she doesn't go downtown, I'd go. I'd go by myself, I don't care, I just want to BE there. I know lots of people who have no plans to go and friends who are leaving kids with friends, family and regular caregivers. If I could, I'd run myself right downtown in a heartbeat. Oh well, guess I'll have to wait another 4 years...

One final thought, I asked a couple older women to pull up Josie's hood, as she kept pushing it off. In our conversation, I commented on how I'd woken her from a nap to come downtown and they remembered waking their kids to see Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. Interesting frame of reference. Then they asked how to get to the Archives/Navy Memorial Metro station--my favorite station.