I have beleafs.: the great badass imposers

I traveled to Washington, D.C. with an amazing group of women: Bev (my mama), Wendy (my sister), Mary Jo (my cousin), and Kathy (Mary Jo's friend, now an honorary cousin). We decided we needed a name for our group and came up with "The Imposers."

We left Sunday morning and after a long drive through snow and mountains, made it to D.C. in time for dinner at La Lomita on Capitol Hill. It was great to unwind, eat awesome food, and catch up with the fam. After dinner, CousinBrent suggested we go for a late night stroll down to the Mall. Since we had been sitting in a car all day, we thought it was a great idea. Here is the east side of the Capitol...

And here is the west side where all the magic was about to happen...

On Monday we went to a Pre-Inaugural Michigan Open House hosted by the Michigan Dems. It was crazy crowded so we didn't get to meet any of the elected officials. We did, however, get to see Senator Levin and Senator Stabenow and Rep. Levin. I also ran into a dude I was in school with, Charles. I hadn't seen him since we graduated so it was funny to see him there. After the Open House we hurried over to the National Gallery of Art to meet Brent. First we stopped at the Capitol for daytime photos. Something about a Segway tour group cracks me up.

After Brent gave us a condensed tour of the National Gallery, we met Cori for lunch and went shopping at the Inauguration Superstore. There were so many vendors on the street, we probably didn't even need to go to the store.

On our way back to Cori's and Brent's, the sun was beginning to set and the light on the Capitol was beautiful!

At some point during the trip, The Imposers became The Great Imposers. Eventually, we settled on The Great Badass Imposers.

Tuesday morning we woke up early to the sound of police sirens. I think they started around 3:30 or 4. Not sure what they were doing but I think someone said they were escorting buses to the area since many of the streets had been closed off. I'm not sure why they needed sirens to escort buses on closed streets but I am pretty sure they weren't responding to emergencies every 2 minutes. CousinAaron, Lisa, and Lisa's Aunt April went to the mall at 5AM. We left Cori's and Brent's around 7:15...or 7:30? I think it was still dark. The streets were full of people making their way to the Mall. We walked by the long lines waiting to get into the ticketed areas. I was actually glad I didn't have a ticket because it was so cold and I was happy to be moving. CousinAaron had been texting updates all morning. Luckily we both have Verizon and still had service. Others in our group with different carriers lost service pretty early on. We knew where CousinAaron, Lisa, and Aunt April were standing on the Mall, but by the time we got there, it was too crowded to get to where they were. We ended up finding a spot near the Smithsonian Castle and settled in for a very long morning. It was a ridiculously long morning. Freezing cold. Super dry and dusty. I had to wipe the dust off my camera every few minutes. We had a fun group and we were actually able to stay in pretty good spirits. The crowd was friendly. I was glad the sun was shining. I wasn't able to see the jumbotrons for more than a glimpse here and there. It didn't really matter. When President Obama took the oath (thanks for nothing, Chief Justice!), it was an amazing moment that brought tears to my eyes. I will always remember where I was when he took office. I will always remember the warm and fuzzy feeling in my heart even though my extremities were frozen and about to fall off. Eventually I snapped out of my little President Obama trance and lifted the camera to take some photos...