Washington DC: Two Days Before Inauguration

Yesterday: just two days before Inauguration. I went to DC to feel the vibe. Vienna metro station was overcrowded. People were waiting in half hour lines to buy metro cards. Fortunately I had mine, so it didn't take so long.

The metro left me at McPherson, near the White House. The usual homeless people were no more at exit. A flock of pigeons instead! It's a pity I didn't take a photo, it would have been my greatest one.

I advanced toward Lafayette Park and took a shot of the Hay Adams Hotel, where the Obamas were hosted last week.


The park was full of fences and all kind of wagons and other stuff, there were zones where people were allowed to walk, and zones where they weren't. It was hard to see the White House from there, I tried however a shot.



I started then recording a video. I decided to follow an African-American family: they were full of joy and excitement. I followed them with my camera, meanwhile trying to capture all that was coming along.

The usual people were there: some fellows just hanging by the fences, the guy protesting the Iraq war, showing some big posts and chanting kind of a litany, while many other folks were trying like me to feel the moment.

The tribunes were already installed. The zone there was closed.


I approached the White House and tried another shot.



I left then the zone and took the 14th Street toward the Mall. It was further on the Pennsylvania Avenue that I found a couple selling the funniest T-Shirt possible, with the happiest family possible. The title was maybe a bit misleading: a family that was the first while it was also the forty-fourth. But here everything's possible, it seems.


The T-shirt was immortalized firstly in close capture, then I turned toward the couple: she was from North Carolina, he was from Detroit, and his beard was reminding me the sixteenth president, Abe Lincoln, so he heard it from me. You'd think I was a bit irreverent, but keep in mind that the mood on Pen Avenue was for joke, joy, excitement. It was in the air, just that.



A bit further, on the 7th Street, some guys were selling forcefully all kind of T-shirts, buttons, calendars and the like. I tried a new video: some friends of mine have always made fun of my way to empathize with small street businessmen. That's it, nobody's perfect. Small street hangers are not perfect, I am not perfect, my friends are not perfect: we live in an imperfect world which is not big deal.

I entered then the National Mall and approached the Capitol Hill: the place where the 44th will become officially president. I was moved, thinking at all the enthusiasm I had witnessed all day long, all these people, simple or sophisticated, who have put so many hopes in this new president, and I hope for him to be not overwhelmed by so many expectations, to keep cool, to take it easy, and to do what he should do. May God bless him and all of us.


Well, the day was not yet finished, so I went on, and after visiting for a little while the National Gallery I took the 7th Street up to Chinatown.

The Zenith Gallery was open so it was hardly resist for a new video. This time the enthusiasm of the artists went a bit too far, you'd say: well, people are just excited for the moment, and people are of all sorts.

I took the metro from Chinatown and went to DuPont Circle to eat something at a small Greek restaurant. It was evening when I left, and DuPont Circle was overcrowded as it never had been. And crowd was everywhere, as I took down Connecticut Avenue toward Farragut West station.

(Washington, District of Columbia)