I went from Brooklyn to DC and I'm back again.

In case you have been living under a rock (or in one, your preference) we are entering a new era here in America. Word got around that Jan 20th was the day to be in DC and over 1 million people made that word their bond. I was among the multitudes of different genders, races, ethnic groups and nationalities all sharing in the cold air that gave life to our new President and his administration. But lets rewind back a bit to Saturday when I got off the Bolt bus in Chinatown DC.

Shino and I carried our bags on the DC Metro down to the waterfront where we would stay with our friends Maiko and Mike (plus their super cute son Musashi). I got my first taste of Ethiopian cuisine this night and it was pretty good. A little spongy on the bread part but pretty good. However across the street from the Ethiopian restaurant was a DC landmark called Ben's Chili Bowl. Now this fine establishment had lines around the block causing 2 hour waits in the cold because of one man's chance visit. Pres. Obama. However that meal would have to wait for another day.

On our second day in DC (Sunday) there was a free concert at the Lincoln Memorial which we missed. When we reached the area I did run into a guy I see in BK all the time and we never got to meet so that was cool. There were tons of people out there all attempting to leave the area at the same time. This was just a preview of what was to come in terms of numbers for Tuesday.

Going into Monday the energy of the city was high. We took a walk down to the Smithsonian and ran across a few floats being put together for the parade. The sun was shining on us because we walked upon the home floats for both the President and Vice President Elect. Making our way onto the Mall deciding to take in the loads of people visiting the nation's capital like us. We saw families, photographers, good vendors, hustlers and macaroni dudes...impostors. The jumbo-trons replayed the free concert from the previous day for those like myself who missed Stevie Wonder, Usher, Bono and others showing their support for the new President. We walked almost the whole Mall, down past the Washington Monument and just kept running into happy and enthused people.

After all of that walking we went down to U-Street during happy hour and just hung out at the Bar Euphoria owned by a fellow Okayplayer (what's up Remy) until it was time to party. You see Dj Spinna , Bobbito and DJ Rich Medina had the grand idea to put on a double party (Half Wonderful Half Funk) . Shino and I were only able to boogie hard to the Wonderful portion of the evening. During the party we all got caught up in the moment chanting "Obama, Obama" to the beautiful musical backdrop of songs like "As" and "Another Star". I got to boogie hard to some great Stevie Wonder songs before heading to bed for the great day in American history. As we entered the train station rushing to catch the last train we saw a woman going the opposite way with a huge sleeping bag, 4 bottles of water and a heavy coat. This was at around 1:30. I guess she was a sign of what was to come.

See Part 2. for the conclusion and the beginning, if you get my drift.
All photo's taken by Me from my iPhone (because I left my camera in my other bag)