Pre-Inauguration Fun on the Washington Mall

This is the house where we stayed in Maryland with our new friends and wonderful hosts - THANK YOU! = - )

Our first morning in DC found us at the Capitol where we were able to get pretty close - we won't be able to do that the next day.

This is where President Obama will be sworn in on Inauguration day (they were practicing) and we were also able to hear the Yo Yo Ma and company practice their musical piece several times (they actually recorded it this day and used the recording on Tuesday because it was SO cold!)

Here are 2 of the ticket holder standing areas.

Playing around with the black and white feature on my camera (it was fun to look at the Capitol in black and white because it looks the same as 50 years ago when all the pics were black and white).

We walked towards the Washington Monument and found the MSNBC booth where there was a lot of action going on with live tapings all day/night long.

The MSNBC guys and gals are like rock stars in the political world!

Later in the day we went exploring ... look at all those media trucks!

There were LOTS of things to buy all over the city.

We bought some stuff in this store, but we did NOT buy the bobble heads (I just took a picture).

Also lots of maps and LOTS of porta potties (although many were locked so that they wouldn't get full before inauguration day).

We made our way back to the Mall and the MSNBC area.

Rock star, Chris Matthews!

That's me in the first shot and then the crowd picture shows where I was standing in that sea of people - never thought I'd be "on" Hardball with Chris Matthews! = - ) BTW, Doug wasn't there because he had to visit the porta potty.

One final stop at a store to get warm and take a picture with our soon-to-be President! = - )