Tigger Witnesses History

Congratulations to President Obama!! Tigger was a witness to history these last few days as Papa Tigger, Tigger and I took in all the inauguartion festivities. G-Ma T, G-Pa T and our friends Ptolemy and Shelly joined as well. It was crazy but fun!!

We started the experience by walking down to the national mall on Saturday. The networks were already broadcasting and preparation was underway for the millions expected. Here's MSNBC's broadcasting location:

Some of the media trucks lining the mall:

CNN broadcasting from atop the Newseum:

We also walked to the capitol, where the swearing in was held. The seats were out on Saturday, so they were probably cold by Tuesday after sitting out for 3+ days!

G-Ma and G-Pa T:

DC seemed like a new city!! Everyone was smiling and friendly on the mall. The city had undergone some signifiant changes. Everything was spruced up - lines repainted on the roads, flags hung, and port-a-potties installed everywhere:

The chatchky selling effort was crazy! You could buy anything and everything with Obama on it. Here's a vendor's table outside the famous Ben's Chili Bowl (a DC landmark). Check out the line waiting to get into Ben's. The tourists came in force!

Here's one of my favorite pictures. Our witness to history - Tigger asleep with President Obama in the background giving a speech from Baltimore during his train ride from Philadelphia to DC (the plastic bubble was to protect Tigger from the blistering cold).

On Monday, the day before the inauguration, we attended an open house hosted by the soon-to-be Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Papa Tigger was invited because of his work with her presidential campaign. It was a mad house! Here's the lobby of the office building, packed with people waiting to get upstairs to the event:

Once upstairs, we found an equally daunting crowd around Hillary. This was as close as we got before giving up:

Luckily, we were able to get a little closer to Bill. Here's the crowd and papparazzi around him:

Even the stars get political. Here's Star Jones talking to Bill:

I finally got close enough for these pics. Ptolemy and Shelly even got to shake his hand!

Inauguration Day was cold and exhausting, but fun. Anticipating huge crowds at the mall, we decided (ok, Papa Tigger insisted) to forego the stroller and strap Tigger into the Bjorn. Here we are, leaving the house to walk/bus down to the national mall. Tigger is warm and toasty!

We took the bus down to L street, then had to walk from there. The crowds were huge!

The historic event was lost on Tigger, who succumbed to his usual nap time:


We got to the national mall and even though the crowds were massive, there was still some room to move around. It was really tight around the huge screens (trinitrons) that broadcast the swearing in. We were all the way behind the Washington Monument, which is waaaaaaaay back from the captiol.


Here was our view of the swearing in - the best view of a screen we could get. It may be hard to tell, but this shot is of Obama taking the oath, with his hand raised.


Papa Tigger and Tigger watch history together (with Ptolemy and Shelly in the background):


After the swearing in, we had to navigate more crowds to exit and walk the 10 blocks to the nearest bus stop.


After our exhausting morning, we relaxed at home and watched the parade. We then cleaned ourselves up and went to the Western Ball, one of the 10 official inaugural balls.


Papa Tigger and I even posed in front of one of the cheesy inauguration backdrops. Terrible lighting, huh?


At first, the party was a bit boring with the mediocre hors d'oevres and bad cover band. But then the show started! Marc Anthony performed, and got J Lo on stage to sing one song with him. We had a pretty good view:

After the performance, Shelly and I were so tired from standing that we sat right on the floor. We didn't dare move and give up our prime spot!


After a brief 30-minute wait, the Bidens arrived and made an appearance:

Then, the band started playing Hail to the Chief and everyone went crazy trying to get a shot of the Obamas. Here was my view:


Finally, people calmed down enough so I could get this shot:


What an evening! After a 45-minute wait at coat check and a cramped Metro ride home, we finally crawled into bed at 1:30 am. It was quite an experience - historic, exhausting and very memorable!

And here's the final picture of the post, one not at all political related. I snapped this of Tigger playing with Ptolemy and Major. What a cutie!