I thought I was so smart. I had it all planned out. Booked the hotel a month in advance. We would drive to MD early Saturday morning, leave the car at the hotel and take the metro into DC.

I overlooked one thing. Everyone had the same plan.

When we arrived at the Silver Spring metro station, there was a line down the block. Ok, it’s just a ticket fiasco. We’re New Yorkers. We can navigate this line and get to the platform. (*Note to any budding DC entrepreneurs: Scalp metro tickets during huge events.) BTW, we did do a good job getting to the fastest line.

Platform was mobbed. After letting 2-3 trains pass with no chance of getting on, the husband had a great idea. “Let’s go the opposite direction!” shouted he, for all to hear. Whether everyone took his advice or copped on for themselves was never determined. We barely managed to get on the train to take it back to the first stop. Lucky for us, they didn’t make us get off before heading back to DC, because the train was completely full.

We were on our way! By now, we knew we were going to miss the National Anthem (I was sure Bruce Springsteen was going to perform that) and sadly, Father Guido. The “kids” on the train weren’t too disappointed with that as they had never heard of him. Ugh, youth.

Luckily, one of those little smarty pants was able to stream the rally live on his non-iPhone PDA, so we caught a bit of what we were missing.

Yada, yada…we get there about 2 hours late. Had to stop at the Smithsonian to pee, find a way in.

Can’t see or hear a darn thing.

Well, what did we expect?

One thing I did manage to hear from a mile away was Tony Bennett. I can now cross that off my bucket list. Seeing (or hearing) Tony Bennett live.

Anyway, it was pretty awesome to be there! Lots of fun. Great experience. Really effin tiring walking around the city afterward trying to find a place to sit and have a drink or food. The lines were out the door at EVERY. SINGLE. PLACE. If the city was so overrun by this rally, I can’t imagine what the inauguration was like.

The next morning, I was chatting with a woman at Starbucks. A young, black, well educated woman who informed me she was a tea party conservative.

I didn’t even ask her WTF?  It was all very civil.

Perhaps a bit of sanity was restored.

(PS: I also believe she was a plant. An actress. But that’s just my theory because I can’t believe…..you know.)

More photos on Flickr.