January 2017 in the District

It's been an interesting month...

Look closely on the right and you can see the rows of port-a-potties getting set up on January 8

The  Freer|Sackler has a great exhibit on illuminated Qur'ans right now.

Cranberry cake, I need to make another batch to practice the recipe. Of course I do. 

Time to scrub sunchokes

Beautiful sunrise January 18

I wonder who is on that helicopter, January 19

We ran by the Capitol on the eve of Inauguration 

And I visited the Mall again Friday night. The aftermath of big events is always interesting.

Independence Ave by the Air and Space Museum

Signs west of the Washington Monument 

The plastic grass protectors on the main Mall

And now for the big event

I've been knitting

Gathering at River Park

Joining the streams of people on Fourth Street

We were lucky to be able to walk from home. Many, many people crowded on Metro to get to the March.

Behind us

Kristie and Amanda

Did I mention a lot of people?

All together

We can't get any closer

Amanda and me

We finally ended up at the base of the FAA building across Independence Ave from the Hirshhorn

This was the map of where the Women's March was supposed to be

But it was impossible to march that route with so many people! The crowd was a lot bigger than Inauguration the day before.

Here's a view of the Smithsonian Castle

Maeve was our group's mascot

We detoured to 14th Street the back way since Independence Avenue was totally blocked with people. Good thing I've run all over the area so I knew how we could get to the Fish Market. I left Kristie and the gang south of the Washington Monument and made use of the running shoes I was wearing. The rest of the pictures are from my jog up around the White House and back down Pennsylvania Avenue and the Mall.

The scene at the Ellipse south of the White House 

Looking across from west to east

North of the White House (the sign says Show Us Your Taxes)

All of the nearby streets are jammed with people

Lots of signs and pink hats

No violence or problems

Hundreds of thousands of peaceful marchers. No arrests at all.

Marchers defaulted to Pennsylvania Ave after the other streets filled up with people

Panorama of Pennsylvania Avenue from the corner of 10th St

Near Archives

7th and Penn to the north

7th and Penn to the east

7th and Penn to the south

7th and Penn to the west

Opportunities for great shots of the Capitol

Go rural! We chatted and she is from West Virginia

The Mall

Filling the leftover fences with signs

I don't know who made the photo collage but it's beautiful

The end. People are leaving 3rd and Independence, the site of the main stage.

If you want to see the speakers from the Women's March in DC, C-SPAN live streamed it and has all five hours on video. That's what Elizabeth, Veronica, Natalie, Lissa, and I did when we got home. They were in a bit better position to hear than I was, but it was certainly hard to see and hear from the middle of the crowd. There are lots of news stories with great pictures of course, here's one.

Update: the clean up crews are good. Here's Sunday evening on my way to meet Mary Lou and Shannon.

Just a few pieces of fence and port-a-potties left to pick up by Sunday night.

Corner of 4th and Independence, it looked rather different 30 hours ago!