i protest.

I can't believe it's been a week since our DC trip. Yikes!! Okay so here's the story of the weekend.

We left on Friday a little after noon. I was running late because my car didn't start. Apparently my battery doesn't like cold weather. Erica, Wendy, my mom and I loaded up my mom's car and took off for DC. We got to Dundee (about a half hour drive from where we started) and had to stop for beef jerky and some lunch.

Yummy!!

We got back on the road and had a pretty uneventful trip. We got to DC at 10:30 which was waaaay later than I thought we would get there. But we had stopped several times and I didn't want to speed too much because it freaks my mom out. Cousincori insisted we stay with her even though she was super busy. It was great to have a comfortable place to stay... for free! We were pretty tired after the long road trip so stayed in and drank some wine and went to bed early.

Saturday morning we got up and finished making our protest signs.

And we went to breakfast at the Tune Inn, which is right around the corner from Cori's condo. The dead animal heads on the wall were amazing and the greasy food was a great way to start the protest day. But as Cori said, the really great service from our waitress was a little unsettling. Good service just doesn't always fit in at a greasy breakfast bar. Great service is just strange.

It was such a beautiful day. It was chilly in the morning but it definitely warmed up.

We got to the mall a little before 11AM so there weren't very many people there. Cori and I walked around a little bit because her friend was supposed to meet us there. We finally found her and then went back to find my mom, Erica, and Wendy. They were up toward the stage so once we found them, it was hard to look back to see how many people were there. The march was supposed to start at 1PM but they had a lot of speakers so it didn't get going until almost 2. Surprisingly, I thought one of the best speakers of the day was the mayor of Salt Lake City. Who woulda thunk it?? I was also happy to hear John Conyers give a shout out to Detroit. There were some celebrities there - Jane Fonda, of course Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, and Sean Penn. A couple veterans and/or their family members spoke out against the war. It really felt like everyone supported the troops but not the war. I obviously wasn't around to protest the Vietnam war but I think we all know that the troops didn't have any support. Many of the speakers not only talked about bringing the troops home and out of harm's way, but pushed for supportive services for the troops and their families once they are home.

Here is a photo of Erica and I. Such good little protesters.

It seems like it took forever for the march to start. And then when it did start, we moved at a snail's pace. The crowd was pretty fired up. Lots of yelling. Lots of sign waving. Lots of singing. Lots of getting bonked on the head with sign corners. Here's the supreme court. I like this picture because the court almost looks fake against the pretty blue sky. I think you all know I'm not that good at photoshopping so it is definitely real.

We dropped out of the march after a while because we were tired (we're old!) and hungry and had to pee. We went to lunch at some bar. I relaxed with a big burger and a very tasty bloody mary. We decided to take the subway up to the memorials and walk around since it was just late afternoon and the weather was perfect.

The World War II memorial wasn't done the last time I was in DC so I was glad we saw it. It's huge and I am sure it is even more cool when the water is in the pool.

The Lincoln Memorial is always amazing.

We also went to the Vietnam Memorial, the Korean War Memorial and the FDR Memorial. I think I took this picture from the FDR Memorial.

And then this is the Jefferson Memorial.

We walked a long way! We finally made it back to Cori's and my mom crashed on the bed. She didn't move. We were sure to put her cell phone, a glass of water, and the remote control by her side before Wendy, Erica, and I went to meet cousinAaron and his friend, Kyle, at the 18th Amendment bar. After a couple cocktails and some food we went back to Cori's and crashed before 11PM. Cori was at a work party and when she got home, she said she thought we were all still out partying. Yeah. Right.

Sunday morning we woke up early, dropped Cori off at the airport (she was actually flying to Detroit!) and hit the road for home. We didn't run into too much bad weather, just some snow in Pennsylvania and then in Toledo. I think the worst roads I ran into were in Detroit where salting and/or plowing the roads is against the values of the city.

It was an awesome weekend with lots of fun and laughs. I love my family (and Erica definitely counts as one of the family!) and I will remember this weekend for a long time.