Last week was sort of a strange time to be in Washington DC. Everyone was all a flutter about the upcoming events. Lots of traffic talk and directions on where to go, where not to go, what would be open and what would not. Very interesting. On Friday afternoon I decided to head into DC as everyone was leaving and have a looksy. Here are some of the photos I took. Most are along the Mall where most of the activities will be taking place. Today there will be thousands of people there.
The Capitol all dressed up for the big ceremony. I had to climb up to get this shot. The fences and potties block the view of everything. I am thinking - home - warm - big screen TV. Sounds good to me. As much as this is truly a historic day. I am all right with staying home to be a part of it.
This is the Capitol all dolled up. Sort of hard to see with the double fencing around the whole thing. After years of marches and demonstrations the city and parks people really have it down. The set up all these fences, to keep people off the grass that is around the public, government, and museum buildings. The fences run from the road to the side walk. Then from the other side of the sidewalk to the building. It is like a long cattle shoot. On the Mall side the fences run along the road with an occasional break to get in and out on to the road. The parks people learned along time ago - 60's and 70's what damage alot of people did to the trees, shrubs, flowers, and grass. Now they just reseed the mall every so often. Cost the tax payers alot less this way.
Although these say you can park after a certain time there is no parking. All of the metered parking along Constitution an Independence Avenue was close. Lucky for me. That made taking pictures and talking to whom ever was around easy.
These are just some of the news trucks that were setting up. The two roads along the mall run East and West, from the Capitol to the reflecting ponds, around the Washington Monument. Either side was nothing but news trucks and their satellites for broadcasting. I saw CNN, Fox news and even a small van from Oklahoma. You have never seen so many cables in your whole life. Across from the news vans are the rows of potties lining the Mall. That ought to be interesting after a few days.
I stood on the middle of the street to take this picture. As you can see it is hard to see anything but the potties. You can also see some of the fencing that lines ALL of the streets in this section of Washington DC.
This is just one of the many movie screen trucks and the towers they were building. They let them start on Friday. They said they would be up all night working. Again, these line the cross streets going North and South along the Mall.
Looking from the Capitol toward the Washington Monument. The movie people are setting up these huge metal towers - boom things. On them are speakers, cameras, and some have TV's. They will have the whole length of the Mall to the Capitol. They were very nice and let me climb up and take pictures. Everything at eye level has the metal fences in it. Also of you look real hard you can see where the security people will be on top of the castle and every other building along the mall. They were securing rooftops when I was there Friday afternoon.
The pink Castle almost hidden by the row of potties. I cannot impress upon ya'll how many of these line the Mall. It is almost impossible to see across the Mall or the buildings along it. I am wondering how people will see anything. Thank goodness they are going to have big screens on the Mall so people can see.
Statue of James Smithson - whom the Smithsonian was founded by and named for- looking out over the mall at the Pink Castle. Note the big boom that is being constructed on the Mall.
The Jefferson Memorial - one of my favorites - is surrounded by fences. It is scheduled for some heavy duty renovations. No events were planned for here. I did not see the sea of potties that I saw everywhere else here either. A place of calm in a sea of chaos.
These are the tents that you see set up around all the buildings where stuff is going on. These are near the Lincoln Memorial. They are set up for the musicians who are gave the concert on Saturday night. I took these Friday afternoon. All of the instruments were being dropped off and checked before hand by security. I saw some of the orchestra and a couple of roadies getting equipment checked out when I stopped to talk to the guards. After the concert, the tents will be used for information, first aid, and more staging. There were more by the Hirshhorn Gallery - a big White Tie thing going on there Friday night. It had a totally white theme. Everything was beautiful.
View of the Washington Monument and the reflecting pool as you come in from the Potomac River. Note the blue potties. They are everywhere. Lining the streets around all the monuments. I am sure glad I don't have to pick them up after this event is over.
So this is my little mini tour around the Mall. I have some more pictures of art stuff that I will blog about tomorrow. Hope you enjoyed the sights, have a safe trip home.
Every once in awhile I just get a "bug a boo" that I want to go on a little road trip. One of those trips where your agenda is vague. You have at least one destination , several "I want to check this out" and I wonder where this might lead me ideas. A good traveling companion is also a must. It is important that whomever you travel with likes this kind of trip, meandering, frequent photo stops, trying new things.
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