A Big Blue Watery Road

Despite the fact there was snow 3 days ago, the temperature broke 65F so out came the bikinis and shorts...and the boats...(warning - music contains explicit spoof lyrics by Incredibad)

Reunited

After a decade of not seeing cousin Jessica, we got to visit and meet the rest of her family!

Gigapan Inauguration Photo

We are not in this photo (we are blocked by the object on the right), but I guess it is still a pretty cool image. If you zoom you can make out faces and everything - it is comprised of thousands of images. Click here to view.

Day 3: DC Video; Ticket & RV Pickup

Day 2: NYC Video; Ellis Island & Times Square

Day 1: NYC Video; Arrival and Ground Zero

Day 8: Homebound Slideshow

Day 7: NC Slideshow

Day 6: MD to NC Slideshow

Day 5: DC Slideshow

Obamicon

Day 4: DC Slideshow

Day 3: DC Slideshow

No water landing for us

Our flight from Laguardia NY landed safely on the ground in Dulles WADC. There was however much snickering when the steward announced "in the unlikely event of a water landing..."

Internetless

Our laptop has been without web access since 6pm last night. In the mean time we will post cell phone videos on Jeremy's facebook...stay tuned!

Day 2: NYC Slideshow

Follow the ferry ride on facebook

We are on our way to Ellis Island. Follow that adventure on Jeremy's facebook page.

Day 1: NYC Slideshow

Inaugural trip: 35276

From Drop Box

That's the altitude at which I am writing as we approach the eastern boarder of Montana. At the moment the ride is like that of an old rusty washing machine on a spin cycle. The turbulence is unsettling but sporadic. Somehow I am dealing with it rather well for me. Although it's never a good sign when the seatbelt light comes on and the pilot tells you to buckle up...which is what just occured.

So far sleep has avoided me but has welcomed Sheryl with open arms. So I will try to snag a few hours of shut-eye before we land and the REAL wild ride begins.

Presenting: The BRArack OBRAma BRA

After much ado, I have photos of my submisssion from last year (July?) for The City of Hope: Bras for the Cause, benefitting breast cancer research. I have participated every year since its inception, and this year I used the idea of hope as the central theme of my work. In my opinion, hope is the essential concept of this time in history. Barack Obama embodies hope for our country and I wanted to personify that in The BRArack OBRAma BRA.

Checking in for the Inauguration Trip

Inaugural Ballgown Confirmed

After much ado and trying on a dozen or so dresses of various lengths, cuts and colors, my ballgown was finally decided on. The consenses of my Mom, and salespeople present, with the help of my appointment fashion consultant and my husband via text - we all agreed....

...purple tea length. Black heels...and it is quite a arch I will say. I left the shoes up to 2 sales people as I seem to have lost my passion for fashion over the years. I am practicing wearing the scary footwear now and will continue to do so to avoid falling on my chin come game day. Although I might make the news if the paramedics are called in. Hmmm...

All that is left now is finding matching black jewelry. I have been told some black chunky pieces or something with some color would work well. I have 1 day left to borrow or buy - and work, and pack, and do homework. Wish me luck!

From Inaugural famine to feast

Just over one week ago we had everything in order for our trip to DC for the Inauguration, except of course for tickets to any of the actual events and ceremonies. We did score a pair, along with tickets to the Youth Ball which we now plan to attend. But none of those tickets have arrived yet...so it is getting a little nerve racking as we prepare to get on a plane in three days.

But today that all changed. I had been hounding friends in high places in DC to see if they could hook us us up with tickets and boy did they come through for us. I now have four tickets with my name on them in DC, should my tickets not arrive in time. As a result I will be snagging a couple for my brother who is also making the trip for the big day. In addition to all of that we will be connecting with some old and new friends in NYC along the way, others in DC and we will even be having coffee with a Senator, the morning after the inauguration.

It just keeps getting better!

Inaugural Celebration Initial Talent Lineup Confirmed!

Clearly, I am impartial to the male line-up (photos above), but there are many amazing people performing or appearing...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: PIC Communications OfficeJanuary 12, 2009 202-203-1700 INITIAL TALENT LINEUP CONFIRMED FOR "WE ARE ONE: THE OBAMA INAUGURAL CELEBRATION AT THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL," KICKING OFF INAUGURAL OPENING FESTIVITIES, PRESENTED EXCLUSIVELY BY HBO JAN. 18 --------George Stevens, Jr. Executive Produces;Don Mischer Produces And Directs;Michael Stevens Is Producer And Writer-------- WASHINGTON, D.C. -

The Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) is pleased to announce the producers and initial talent lineup for WE ARE ONE: THE OBAMA INAUGURAL CELEBRATION AT THE LINCOLN MEMORIAL, the Opening Celebration for the 56th Presidential Inaugural, to be presented exclusively by HBO on Sunday, January 18 (7:00-9:00 p.m. ET/PT). The event will be free and open to the public, kicking off the most open and accessible Inauguration in history.

The special will be executive produced by George Stevens, Jr. (The Kennedy Center Honors), and produced by Don Mischer (Olympic Ceremonies) who will also direct the special, and Michael Stevens (The American Film Institute Salutes) who is also writing the special, and will be a production of The Stevens Company in association with Don Mischer Productions.

Musical performers scheduled for the event include Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher Raymond IV, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, will.i.am, and Stevie Wonder. Among those reading historical passages will be Jamie Foxx, Martin Luther King III, Queen Latifah and Denzel Washington. The Rt. Reverend V. Gene Robinson will give the invocation. Rob Mathes will be the music director and arranger for the backing band, which will support all of the artists. Additional performers will be announced as they are confirmed.

"Our intention is to root the event in history, celebrating the moments when our nation has united to face great challenges and prevail," observed George Stevens, Jr. "We will combine historical readings by prominent actors with music from an array of the greatest stars of today."

"This is a great opportunity to capture an historic event in a very meaningful setting," noted Don Mischer. "We will have the statue of Abraham Lincoln looking down on our stage and a crowd of hundreds of thousands of people lining the mall -- a tableau any director would relish."

"We have found that the great artists are eager to take part and each one is working with us to find music that expresses the optimism and hope that people bring to the Obama inauguration," said Michael Stevens.

Televised to the nation, the Opening Celebration will be a declaration of common purpose and new beginnings. The Sunday afternoon performance will be grounded in history and brought to life with entertainment that relates to the themes that shaped Barack Obama and which will be the hallmarks of his administration.
HBO will televise the event on an open signal, working with all of its distributors to allow Americans across the country with access to cable, telcos or satellite television to join in the Opening Celebration for free.

The 56th Inauguration promises to be the most inclusive in history, and the Opening Celebration is one of a series of inaugural events that reflect that commitment. On Saturday, the President-elect, Vice President-elect and their families will journey to the nation's capital via train, holding events that are free and open to the public along the way. They will be joined by a group of everyday Americans they met along their road to the White House. On January 19th, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, President-elect Obama will call on all Americans to make an ongoing commitment to serve their communities and their country. A new website, USAservice.org, makes it easy for Americans to organize service events or find existing events to participate in. To date, nearly 5,000 events have been organized across the country. That evening, Michelle Obama, Dr. Jill Biden, and their families will host a free "Kids' Inaugural" concert to honor military families, broadcast live on the Disney Channel and Radio Disney.

This spirit of openness will continue on Inauguration Day, when, for the first time in history, the entire length of the National Mall will be open to the public for the swearing in ceremony. Local D.C. students have also been given the chance to receive tickets in front of the White House for the Inaugural Parade for themselves and their family members based on the submission of essays answering the question, "How can I contribute to my neighborhood through community service?"

On the evening of Inauguration Day, the first ball that President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will attend will be the first-ever Neighborhood Inaugural Ball. The ball will be broadcast live on ABC and over the Internet, bringing together neighborhoods across the country in the spirit of unity and celebration.
The sum of these public events is an Inauguration that allows more Americans than ever before to come together as one nation and one people, united in our resolve to tackle our greatest common challenges and move this country forward together.

For the latest information on the 2009 Presidential Inauguration, please visit www.pic2009.org.

Inaguration Tickets & Updates

Our paper tickets should arrive any day, but in the mean time an Inaugural Ceremony map showing gates and guest sections was just released! In checking our confirmation, we are in the North Standing section, which is in the back to the left, but we are still way ahead of the average Joe (no, not Joe the plumber) on the street.

We tried to get 1 of the 5,000 Parade tickets that went on sale Friday morning, but neither of us could get through to Ticketmaster, by phone or internet. After almost an hour of trying, I finally got through through to a human. As expected the tickets were gone within a minute or two of going on sale. Oh well.

On an 8 hour shopping binge yesterday, we managed to reserve a tuxedo for pick up near DC and I may have found an appropriate gown (see photo) for the Youth Ball. We got some more gear for the road too, including some heartier fabrics in preparation for the possibly sub-zero temperatures. This week we will be double-checking all our confirmations for accomodations, transportation and more.

We are also back to school now, so homework is unfortunately a part of our daily lives again. Doing homework while on vacation is always lame, but a necessary evil, and no worse than homework after working all day!

Chewbacca Turns 10

For his 10th Birthday, Chewie enjoyed a new blue toy (although Crash kept stealing it), both got Jerky sticks, some rare couch time, and some foul looking raw food with dinner. After the raw food defrosted, I slit a cut in the plastic and this bison mush and blood oozed out the package. It was wrong on so many levels that I quickly noticed my gag reflex and had to have Jeremy deal with the rest of it. I remind you that we are vegetarians, so our efforts must go to show how much we love these stinky pooches.

We adopted Chewbacca at 3 months old in 1998, when he was just a little black peanut on stubs. Now 10 years later, he has been with us through 6 different homes - including a tiny apartment with 2 cats, from dating to 7 years of married life, countless trips to the Bay, the emergency vet and even more to off-leash dog parks. He shares his big day with The King, and you might notice his lip curl in the photo on the upper left. What a charmer, uh uh huh.

Happy Birthday Buddy-Chew!

Inaugural Itinerary

Our plan reminds me of a reality version of the above 2 movies. Check it out:
DAY 1: Redeye to New York, arrive 6am.
DAY 2-3: Drop stuff at hotel near Central Park, check in later. See ground zero (our last trip to NYC was pre-911), go behind the scenes tour of ABC studios, visit friends, if time allows check out Ellis Island and more.
DAY 4: Morning flight to DC, arrive 730am. Pick up inaugural tickets. Bus to Virginia to pick up the rental standard RV. Drive RV to Maryland; park for 3 nights stay. Bus back and forth to DC to explore.
DAY 5: Attend Inauguration Day Events
DAY 6: Visit Maya Lin’s Vietnam War Memorial and explore the rest of the National Mall, Capitol Hill, Dupont Circle, whatever we have time for.
DAY 7: Return the RV. Bus or cab to pick up rental car. Drive 4 hours to North Carolina to visit family.
DAY 8: Explore North Carolina (It’s Jeremy’s first time). Family Dinner.
DAy 9: Return rental car and fly home!

Praise facebook and friends!

While posting a smart ass comment on facebook about Governor Gregoire’s mysterious disappearance, Jeremy started an online chat with our friend who worked on the Obama (pictured above) campaign. They got to talking about our trip to DC in 2 weeks and how we are going despite not having tickets for Inauguration Day. Come to find out our friend thought he could pull some strings and get us into the events and said he would get back to us. This after requesting tickets as a citizen – denied, requesting media credentials – denied, after hitting up anyone and everyone in congress – denied! Still, we hoped against the odds that our friend could come through. And like the campaign message, hope was enough – our friend not only got us Inauguration tickets, but also into the Youth Ball where President-elect Obama is said to be attending! Ball gown and tuxedo planning is currently underway. Stay tuned for more...