Opening Ceremonies

Sunday was a fascinating day. We went to the neatest little bakery in Cleveland Park and had muffins and coffee with Regina. From there we had no plans other than the Smithsonian Museum of American history, and Robb wanted to try and catch the 2:30 concert at the Lincoln Memorial. He's a Stevie fan. We got to the museum at 9:58, and it opens at 10. Outside the museum, for our 2 minute wait, we enjoyed a Civil War Era brass band. It was an all male band but had reenacting female "groupies" there showing their support. HA! Once inside the museum we saw Presidents Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson (Thomas, not George.) For any of you who know Robb, you know he hero worships Thomas Jefferson. They had a nice conversation about philosophy, our first African American president and religion and I took their picture. Once inside the museum we saw a huge Greek statue. I said it was Poseidon (as a joke.) Robert began praying for his uncultured wife. I almost thought he was going back to get President Jefferson to pray with him. The Greek statue was of George Washington, half dressed with a saber in his hands. We are going to look up the info on it but haven't yet. All day I referred to it as Poseidon just to make Robb's skin crawl. So, instead of boring you with my museum ramblings, I'll just tell you some of the neat things we saw. We saw the First Lady collection of inaugural gowns. I got pictures of Laura Bush's red dress , Mrs. Kennedy's dress, and Mrs. Carter's dress. We saw Bill Clinton's saxophone. We saw the original movie poster from The American President (love you Nikki Smith) and the original Kermit and Oscar the Grouch. Most interestingly, we saw two pieces of steel which were recovered from one of the Twin Tower's 70th floor. I think this was the first time I'd seen a museum exhibit depicting an event from my lifetime. It was very emotional, and the museum did a wonderful job with the display. Pictures coming shortly.

So, we said goodbye to Poseidon, and Robb kissed Jefferson farewell. We headed outside only to find that we could have a "Barackwurst " for lunch. We decided to head to the Lincoln Memorial and check out the concert. We got in line at the WWII memorial, for what we didn't know. Once we made it to the front of the line we realized it was a security checkpoint for the concert. Good enough. The guard made me open my coat and "flash her." I was given the sign to go on. She didn't check my pockets or camera case or anything. Like Mom said, I don't know if that was a good thing or not. We got halfway up the left side of the frozen reflecting pond before we could go no further because of the crowd. We were right below a sweeping camera and one of twenty jumbo trons. For the next three hours we sang and danced with 20 thousand of the happiest people I have ever seen. We were entertained by: Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Garth Brooks, U2, James Taylor, Sheryl Crow, Bruce Springstein, John Mellancamp, Tom Hanks, Herbie Hancock (Robb informed me that he DID NOT sign the Declaration of Indenendence,) Uscher, Josh Grobin, Queen Latifah and my all time favorite teen crush hearthron Jon Bon Jovi. Yes, you read correctly, I said Jon Bon Jovi. He's still got it after all these years. There were so many more! We heard a booimng speech for our Vice President elect Joe Biden. We heard a hopeful speech from President Elect Barack Obama. We saw Marine One-it took President Bush on his final flight back to the White House. It flew really low over the crowd, we got pictures.

Now and editorial note. Regardless of your political views, this was a concert for all. I have never been in a crowd this size where folks were so excited and polite. It was amazing and something neither of us will forget.

Robb is rushing me out the door so I must go for now. He's not giving me time to proofread, revise and edit. PANIC ATTACK!

I'll write the rest of the novel this evening. We are meeting friends for dinner in Rockville.

Have a great day!

Hi to Mrs. Bulter's first grade class at Manley.

Warmly,
Robb and Liz