Trump Inauguration 2017 and Women's March
November 8, 2016 was a momentous day, and after recovering from our hangovers on the 9th, we made a spontaneous decision to travel to Washington, DC for the weekend of the inauguration. There were already some rumors of a "women's march" to take place on January 21, but we booked our flights and hotel room before those plans were firmed up. We just wanted to go make our voices heard.
The following are some photos from our trip.
For me, the most unexpected detail of this trip is how so many people who weren't there have taken the time to try to explain to me "what really happened" on either of these two days. It's a weird feeling to take the time to travel to an event, then have it mansplained to you by people who weren't there.
Our first experience of this was shortly after we arrived in New York late on Sunday night. We had just driven a rental car from Washington up through Delaware and New Jersey, and we caught an Uber to our hotel. The driver — a stocky young Greek man with a baseball bat in the car — asked where we'd come from, and when we said we'd been in DC he started talking about the "riots" there and asked if we'd had any trouble.
I assured him we never even saw any anger, much less a "riot," but he was undeterred from his point. He said I should see some of the coverage, "it was insane," and he mentioned that he had stayed off the street the day before while there was a large women's march in New York, because he didn't want anything to happen to his vehicle. Then he added, in a stern and almost accusatory tone, "violence is never the answer!"
As far as I know, the most violent thing to happen during the DC protests was a nasty little cut on the thumb of the driver of a limo that was destroyed, but I politely agreed with him and made small talk. His car, his baseball bat, his rules.
Since returning from our trip, I've had similar exchanges with people who try to convince me that the crowds on Friday were actually much larger than we saw with our own eyes, or people telling me that the crowd on Saturday was much smaller than we saw with our own eyes, or that there was a sinister air of hateful anger instead of the up-with-people lovefest that we had actually found ourselves immersed in that day.
These conversations make me want to go to more of these sorts of events, so that we can see the details for ourselves. And the good news is, it looks like there will be many more such opportunities in the months and year ahead.
Arriving in DC
We drove from Seattle to Montana to leave our dogs (Jamie and Alice) with a friend, then took flights from Bozeman to Minneapolis to Washington, DC.
In our Uber ride from the airport to our hotel, we happened to be across the Potomac River during the fireworks show at the end of Trump's rally at the Lincoln Memorial.
In honor of Donald Trump's longstanding fealty to Vladimir Putin, We decided to stay at the Dupont Circle Hotel, where Putin adviser Mikhail Lesin had died a year earlier. Lesin was found in the bathroom of his hotel room with blunt force injuries to his head, neck, torso, upper extremities, and lower extremities. An investigation by a joint task force of the FBI, Metropolitan Police Department, and U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia had concluded that that Lesin's death was accidental, caused by repeated falls "due to acute ethanol intoxication after days of excessive alcohol consumption."
Inauguration Day
Snapshots on the street before the inauguration.
The line waiting to get through the metal detectors for access to Pennsylvania Avenue.
We were on the north side of the 600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue. There were reserved bleachers across from us, which were about half full by the time the motorcade came by.
I had seen social media posts about plans for 6000 "Bikers for Trump" to gather across from Seward Square, but these were the only bikers I saw in that area.
When the motorcade came past, we caught a glimpse of a thumbs-up from the back of the Presidential limo.
Photos on the street after the inauguration.
At the end of a long day, we walked over to the Watergate Hotel for a nightcap at the bar.
Women's March
It was a three mile walk from our hotel to the location for the start of the Women's March on Washington down on Independence Avenue.
While people flowed in, various speakers addressed the crowd. There were large screens set up in various places, because only a small portion of the crowd was close enough to see the speaking platform.
There were thousands of signs. Here are a couple dozen of them ...
The march ended at the White House.
