Trip to DC to Inaugurate Hope! 1-18-09

My younger sister, Megan, and her family are moving to the Bay Area next month.  We made this plan originally thinking I could help her and her husband, Ryan, bring the three little ones London 7, Canela-Jayne 3, and Zavier 1 back here on the plane, but the house hasn’t sold yet, so it will just be Ryan and I coming back next week, his new job starts February 1st.   Of course I had an ulterior motive too, knowing that where they live in Arlington, is just 3 miles from the site of our historic inauguration happening in just two days!

 

Arriving at Dulles Airport in DC on Thursday, we had an inexplicable one-hour wait for our luggage.   There was an older African American man from Oakland waiting near me.  He said it had been 15 years since he took a vacation away from the Bay Area, and for this trip he had to borrow money from family members. 

 

“I am not sure why”, he said, “but I just have to see this for myself.  I still believe this is a miracle.  This man is a sort of savior.”   He paused.   “He is saving us from the small beliefs we have had about ourselves.”

 

People are pouring into our capital from all over the country.  They say 3 million will go to the mall to watch the inauguration on Tuesday.  Some lucky few have tickets to sit close to the US Capitol steps where the President-elect Obama will be sworn in and make his address.   Others will go for the parade, and still others will just crowd around one of the 20 jumbotrons (football game type huge screens) set up all around the mall.

 

Normally I would go in for the whole event.   An hour twenty minutes walk in.  Three hours standing, and probably walk the whole way back since the prospects of getting on a bus or train are daunting at best.  But the temperature on Tuesday may not rise above freezing until late afternoon, and since I’m still recovering from Whooping Cough I am considering what I can reasonably do that day.

London sat with me at the breakfast table this morning, and as we discussed what I might do that day she said she would really like to go with me.  Ah!  A plan is starting to take   shape.  These crippled lungs and a six year old are probably on par for what we can handle.   We talk for a minute about the historic nature of this moment.  And how she will speak of it when she is older.  She just smiles at me and says “Yes and I could really use some fresh air!”