Going to the Inauguration

Today I began firming up my arrangements to attend President Obama's Second Inaugural in Washington, D.C.  It will be held Monday January 21, 2013--appropriately enough, it will be Martin Luther King Day.  I'm excited to be able to go and be part of this quadrennial rite of American democracy.     

The first thing I did was call a friend in Northern Virginia to see about staying over for a few days.  I've known Greg Guernsey since high school.  He and wife Lorene said they would be happy to take me in.  With that in hand I went ahead and booked the flight.  I used Delta Skymiles to get one out of Fresno to Dulles with stops in Salt Lake and Detroit.  The return trip will go through Cincinnati and Salt Lake back to Fresno.  I also got a rental car and bought a special Inaugural commemorative D.C. Metrorail pass good for unlimited transportation on the subway and bus system for the day.

I'm travelling in on Saturday the 19th and flying out on Wednesday the 23rd.  That ought to give me time to perhaps do a little tourist visiting on Sunday and Tuesday.  There are myriad historical and other points of interest in the vicinity and it's been since 1997 that Joan and I took the kids to the area. I'll need to do a little research and see what looks both interesting and manageable.

One thing I'm waiting on is a call from my congressman's office.  I phoned them last week to get on a list for a ticket for seating at the ceremony at the Capitol steps.  Every national legislator gets some tickets so I thought I'd give it a try.  Chances are I'll just be standing with the other thousands farther back along the mall, but since Rep. Devin Nunes is a Republican I'm hoping there won't be too many of his regular supporters who want to go and maybe I'll get lucky!  They did say they could assure me of getting a ticket for a Capitol tour. 

I'll be posting on this now and then as developments go forward.  I've been a big Obama supporter so it's particularly meaningful for me to attend what will be my first time at an Inaugural.  For that matter, there's every good chance it will be my only time.  And that being the case, who better to see than the nation's first minority president being sworn in as the re-elected incumbent?