I caught the 10:00 AM bus from South Station and enjoyed an uneventful ride to the cavernous Port Authority in NYC. I hailed a cab & then received a scenic tour of the Upper West Side en route to the hostel where my travel companions were staying (they went to NYC on Friday to see On Ensemble in concert, and I was meeting them on Saturday), but I made it there in good time. We festooned the rental minivan with DC or BUST!! signs and red, white & blue ribbon streamers and embarked upon our big trip in high spirits.
Kudos to the crew for a well-provisioned ride...even though the fresh fruit became frosty fresh fruit overnight in the frigid Manhattan air. (Hope you enjoyed the alliteration in there.) Our indefatigable drivers Beth, Karen and Matt cheerfully delivered us to Silver Spring, MD - home base for our DC adventures.
Sunday's focus was the Inaugural Concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Outfitting ourselves with cold-weather gear and percussive devices, we rode the Metro & then walked to the National Mall, stopping along the way for some cool Inaugural buttons. Once on the Mall we began to play, which in turn began to turn heads our way. A Fox affiliate's crew filmed us and briefly interviewed Greg, but we don't know which city the "Fox13" crew came from...maybe Tampa or Memphis? It was interesting to observe passersby and note how much attention you can get from banging on drums, shakers & a cowbell.
Kudos to the crew for a well-provisioned ride...even though the fresh fruit became frosty fresh fruit overnight in the frigid Manhattan air. (Hope you enjoyed the alliteration in there.) Our indefatigable drivers Beth, Karen and Matt cheerfully delivered us to Silver Spring, MD - home base for our DC adventures.
Sunday's focus was the Inaugural Concert at the Lincoln Memorial. Outfitting ourselves with cold-weather gear and percussive devices, we rode the Metro & then walked to the National Mall, stopping along the way for some cool Inaugural buttons. Once on the Mall we began to play, which in turn began to turn heads our way. A Fox affiliate's crew filmed us and briefly interviewed Greg, but we don't know which city the "Fox13" crew came from...maybe Tampa or Memphis? It was interesting to observe passersby and note how much attention you can get from banging on drums, shakers & a cowbell.
We missed the opening moments from the concert; by the time I took my first photo, Denzel Washington was addressing the throng. We heard "Lean On Me" as we approached the Washington Monument; we settled on a spot just past it, and enjoyed the words & music awhile before relocating to get closer to a jumbotron during Garth Brooks' performance. The rest was pretty good, and a favorite moment for me occurred when Pete Seeger came out to lead everyone in several verses of "This Land Is Your Land" - surely Woody Guthrie was somewhere, smiling, while that song reverberated around our Capital. On that note, I'll stop for now. I'll check in a day or two later with another installment.
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