I heard last night that on the Mall, there’s one porta-potty for every 6,000 people.
Yes, adult diapers are definitely a good idea!!
Mama Tiger writes:
> I heard last night that on the Mall, there’s one porta-potty for every 6,000
> people.
That’s clearly wrong. There will be 7,000 porta-potties on the Mall, according to the news story in The Washington Post today. If there are 2,000,000 people on the Mall (an overestimate, I think, since most of the visitors to D.C. won’t be able to get onto the Mall), that would be less than 300 per porta-potty.
i’m still trying to find a way down from phila. amtrak has been sold out for a while.
trying buses now.
if i find a way down there agent foxtrot, i’d be happy to tour with you. i should know for sure sun. or mon.
I am definitely going…my only debate is how early I’m going to get up. I live in College Park, MD, so am taking the Green Line in.
For those of you concerned about bathrooms, some federal buildings will be open for bathroom use/warming up: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ina...wprss=rss_blog
Epic fail on adding edit…
I’m getting a lot of emails and phone calls now asking if I have any extra tickets. I gave mine away. Apparently, folks are selling ball tickets that we get for free. Shame on you, people.
HELL no. I don’t like crowds.
At least one of my classmates is going, though. We’re in policy school, so it’s not really an inherently insane idea - lots of my classmates have worked on the hill and have connections. But I will watch it inside on TV; naturally my school is having a viewing event and classes during the ceremonies have been canceled. So I’ll be warm and actually able to see it.
Plus, I won’t be surrounded by millions of strangers, which would be my own personal hell.
We’re here and having the BEST time! Got in at the crack of dawn, got to our little flat in Dupont Circle (charming! The young man left us a stack of clean sheets and towels, 2 hotel-size bottles each of shampoo and conditioner and a box of chocolate mints – how sweet!).
First we decided to take a walking tour and started down 17th street. We had brunch at Annie’s steak house and it was awesome! I happened to be on my cell to my friend in L.A. to tell her we’d just found out the Capitol wasn’t open for the next 4 days, so no tours, when my food arrived. A minute later our waiter came over, picked up my knife and fork and started cutting up my ham steak! OMG we were laughing so hard!
We continued on down 17th, hit a detour, took some pictures of General Sherman, then walked to the Washington Monument. From there we went to the new WWII Memorial, then to the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial. We met an amazing couple there. The man’s father, Alvester Hill Sr., was killed in Nam when the man we met, Alvester Jr., was just 3 years old. His wife was taking his picture pointing to his father’s name and I offered to take their picture together. They were so grateful, and we started talking about his father, and it turns out that one of his father’s fellow soldiers who was with him when he was killed, had been looking for Alvester Jr. for 40 years. . . and had just found him a couple of weeks ago. They’re already planning to meet, with some of the other men who served with his father, sometime in June in Ohio. Very moving experience.
After that we stopped for a few more photo ops with the White House in the background, cut through a charming sculpture park, and headed towards the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The coolest part for me was getting to see Space Ship One, which Spiny went out to the Mojave desert at O’Dark Hundred to watch take its first ever flight into space!
After that, I was a bit beat, so we headed back to Dupont Circle on the Metro. We rested for a while, then had a late dinner at one of the places from a link someone provided in my Cafe Society thread. It’s only 2 blocks down the street from us in a charming converted brownstone. The food was good, not great, but absolutely enjoyable, and we had a really nice time chatting with the guys sitting next to us.
We’ve found that a lot here – people are SO NICE! Everyone takes up conversation with you – nobody does that in L.A.! People will intentionally divert their face so they don’t even have to make eye contact, let alone speak to you.
Tomorrow we’re off to Xavier Becerra’s office to pick up our tickets to the Inauguration, then to the spot where we have to pick up tickets to the California Bash later that night, then I’m not sure what. I always manage to pick up a cold when I fly, and this trip was no exception. My nose is buuuuuuuuuuuurning, and if it’s still this bad tomorrow, I may leave my husband with my boss and his girlfriend and son, let them do more sightseeing, and head back to our place to rest up for the Bash.
Also of note, I don’t know when these supposed crowds are supposed to be showing up, but so far it’s eerily empty here. And there are THOUSANDS of porta-potties (Don’s Johns, to be exact - LOL). We saw way more porta-potties than people! I’m sure that’ll change by Tuesday, though.
Hope everyone who’s here and everyone who’s coming, is having, and will have, as great a time as we are!
Have the fun I wish I was having, Shayna.
What he said!
I still haven’t finalized my plans 
Dweezil and I will talk about it tonight.
BTW, Dweezil went on a field trip to DC on Friday, and talked more about the endless waves of Don’s Johns on the Mall than about the museum.
FYI, a map of the locations on Jumbotrons in and around the Mall:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2009/01/13/GR2009011301585.html
as I recall, the Jumbotrons along the parade route are so the parade audience can watch the swearing in ceremony, and will be taken away after that so the parade can go by.
Airman’s unit is providing security, so if anyone ends up in Anacostia, swing by and say hello. He’s the guy in BDUs. 
Article from the local paper here.
Seriously, he’s TSgt Dave Cartwright, but I’m sure most of you DC Dopers know him. (He’s already outed himself in this post.)
I had the opportunity to go down, but chose not to. I’m going to be an usher for Jack Wagner’s swearing-in as auditor general instead.
Robin
looks like i’m staying in philly. now to decide where in philly. some of the parties look like fun.
We’re heading for downtown!
Dweezil wants to take advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, so we’re going to go downtown. We’ll see how close we can get to a jumbotron - I’ll try near the Washington Monument, but we’ll see.
Mama Zappa and Moon Unit don’t want to go, but Mama Zappa will drop me and Dweezil at the Metro at oh-dark-thirty.
I’m both overwhelmed and excited. I’ve always avoided crowds like this - never did Fourth of July on the Mall. But this I want to see!
I live inside the Beltway, and I’m not going. I’m too scared of all the traffic, congestion and craziness. Although I have a feeling that so many people have been frightened away that it may end up being less-than-crowded. Now on the eve of the festivities, I’m regretting not going a little bit… when I saw the concert on TV yesterday, I wished I was there.
My sister-in-law works for an event planning company that is doing one of the balls, so she went downtown today and is spending the night at a co-worker’s in DC and will be working all day tomorrow. It’s going to be a long day for her!
p.s. Shayna, be sure to post about all the rest of your experiences!!
This post has triggered deep feelings of homesickness in me.
the main sticking point was getting back from washington. there were still buses and trains going into dc, but nothing coming back from dc. i couldn’t get back until tomorrow morning. a bit late.
the mall is packed now, i can’t imagine what it will be like in a few hours.