Inauguration Advice from a Veteran
 

OK, I have a guide license in DC and am working the event (I am with a group and staying at a hotel with them on the nights of January 19th & 20th. The hotel is near BWI airport (over 4 times farther from The Mall than the house where I live).

First of all I wonder why anyone comes to inauguration. You see next to nothing unless you have a spot on the inaugural stand. If you are a Congressman, Senator, cabinet officer or Obama's kids, it might be worth freezing your backside off to see this because you will see it. For the rest of us, forget it.

If you don't have long underwear get it before you come and wear it. Wear warm socks--maybe two pair. Since the toilets will be inadequate, anyone with half a brain should wear Depends. I am serious. Maybe you'll get lucky and you will find a toilet when you need one, but, just in case. . . .

Does that sound gross? Well, the portable toilets will have huge lines and will be freezing cold. The Smithsonian will be open and have warm toilets but there will be enormous lines (not to mention a second security inspection) to get in.

You are much better off watching the inauguration on TV.

You will, of course, be unable to drive in DC. The limos and buses will be gridlocked and the "balls" have little dancing and no place to sit down for your ridiculously priced ticket.

I have videos for my group of 8th graders for when that happens. At least the bus has a toilet. People are, by the way totally obsessed with toilets at inaugurations. What will you do when you spend hours in Metro waiting to push your way onto a subway with thousands of others--not to mention having to walk to remote Metro stations because the ones closest to The Mall will be closed. Of course, the thousands of people will all be walking to all the same Metro stops leading to gridlock in the Metro. Metro, by the way, does NOT have public toilets in the stations.

Even if you were to be right in front of Obama when he gives his speech with only several thousand people in front of you, a huge TV tower for the cameras is in front of the inaugural stand that will block your view.

As for the parade, you must choose between seeing the backsides of people watching the swearing in and the backsides of people watching the parade. Your chance of getting more than a brief glimpse (if that) of the new president is next to nothing. He is likely to be in a car with tinted windows. Odds on, you will not see Obama at all.

You will spend hours in security lines and may not get through the line before the event takes place.

My advice to anyone planning to come is to come the week after inauguration. DC will be deserted, hotels will have sales on rooms, restaurants will greet you with open arms, the Smithsonian will be empty and there will be plenty of tour guides to show you our wonderful city. Obama will still be president and you still won't see him.

Excellent advice!!
When i was MUCH younger and working in DC I attended JFK"S inauguration. As you can imagine, security was a LOT less rigid way back then. It was freezing cold that day following a heavy snowfall the night before.
My roomate and I didn't have tickets to the parade but climbed the back side of the bleachers set up on the street.
As I said, security was lax and many people did not show due to the cold so we had great seats.
I imagine in today's world if one got caught even trying to climb the back of the bleachers, one would be immediately hauled away.
We watched the whole parade. I remember it well to this day.
Ah, the juices of youth and a time of relative innoncence!!

I am forwarding this and other Inaugural advice threads to my dtr who will be one of the masses without tickets to anything attending. She and her college freshman friends from Massachusetts - all first time voters and now spread thruout the east at colleges - made a pact in HS that if Obama won the election they would meet in Washington for the Inauguration. They are all camping out at Georgetown Univ dorm of one of the friends. I am sure they will be cold, see nothing - and will remember the experience forever.

Coincidence!!
Though I now live in Montana, at the time I was also from Massachusetts!!!

Yes, I am sure they will remember it forever--and probably laugh about some things that happened. For many people they just want to say, "I was there." At my age, I wish I was in front of my TV with a glass champagne rather than worrying about the 55 people in my tour group. Each of them will have a handout with my cell, the bus parking location and a time to meet if they get separated. Chances are we will still be standing in the line for security when the swearing in takes place. Those lines take hours.

My advice: DO NOT drink coffee for breakfast. Even better, have a glass of water at midnight and no liquids afterwards. On a bus tour, everyone voids on the bus again as we go in. That may be the last toilet we see for awhile. I took my own advice and bought--yuk--a package of Depends. Been there done that, and take ALL precautions.

Personally, I will make certain I am on "empty" before I leave the hotel. You tell the kids over and over again and they always have to go to the toilet five minutes after leaving the hotel.

Lots of DC natives are celebrating with inauguration parties at their warm houses. That is my idea.

Thank goodness we only do this every 4 years. On January 21st, it will look like the city had been bombed the previous day with overflowing trash cans (as well as other items--if you know what I mean). A week later, it will all be picked up and they will be reseeding the grass on The Mall (they do that after every mega event; in my book they should forget about the grass; astro turf, anyone?).

By the way, I saw JFK once in Waterbury, CT, the day before election in 1960. Living in the DC area, please do not think I see presidents all the time. The last one I saw was Richard Nixon (yuk) and that was a long time ago. If you live in the DC area, the president is regarded as a traffic nuisance when he is loosed among us.

laurenkahn1 is known on MANY boards as a fount of knowledge but also as someone who exaggerates, stretches the truth and was banned under another screen name on AOL for stalking.

Her advice re the inauguration is perhaps helpful but this is not going to stop the millions of people who want to see this historic occasion.

My old roomie is coming to town with her 11-yr-old son to witness the inauguration. (We're just inside the Beltway in Va. and I was born and raised here.) After all of the news reports of estimated crowds, subway station and highway closures, shortages of porta-potties (my bro-in-law owns one of the biggest companies here and he was not called), the weather forecast (low 30s), not to mention having to take a vacation day, I think I'll just go to work that day!

I've see Lyndon Johnson, Jerry Ford, George Bush and Bill Clinton and only Johnson was in DC!

I'll be at the swearing in. I was able to get tickets to from my congressman. I housed two freedom riders when they came to Atlanta to attend MLK's funeral. Going to MLK's funeral when I was 22 years old was something I'll never forget.

Seeing Barack Obama sworn in on Tuesday will be a once in a lifetime event for me and my family. Being in the crowd will be part of the fun for me. I'll tape the event for later viewing.

If you have a ticket, you will be with 240,000 others in the ticketed section and probably won't see much. I could have had a ticket from my friendly Congressman next door but turned it down because I will be with a tour group and have to go where they go (no tickets). I don't really mind. Unless you are on the platform (1,600 make that cut), you won't see much. I'll probably be looking at a jumbo tron.

I will be at a hotel with the group 45 miles from DC. I live 8 miles from The Mall. So, I will be farther away than I live. Such is life.

The only presidents I have seen were JFK and Nixon. I saw Nixon a few times. I did once ride in an elevator at The Capitol with RFK. It happened by accident, of course. I figure that I have a better chance than most of eventually seeing Obama somewhere. I saw his motorcade go by a few days ago, but, of course, you can't see in the car anymore. They have tinted windows on the presidential limo these days. No free peeks.

The craziest thing I have ever done regarding presidential candidates was to hitch a ride back to college on Eugene McCarthy's campaign plane in 1968. I had press credentials for my college paper and was going to Hartford and so was he. Only a kid would have the gall to do something like that, no?

I am somewhat a political junkie but don't go around collecting celebrities. To be nonpartisan, Sen. Mitch McConnell was once my next door neighbor (They have to live somewhere).

Since I will be with the group at the hotel, the Congressman next door is using the house for inauguration. He's a neighbor, so I refused to charge him. I just told his wife the payment is me coming home and not knowing your family was here. By the way, they did not ask. I just heard them discussing looking for hotel rooms for family and said, "Well, my house will be empty. Why not have them stay here?" Since I home exchange a lot, I am used to having strangers in my house, so it was no big stretch to help him out.

Whether you are watching on TV, standing in line at security in DC or a honcho sitting on the swearing in stand, enjoy our great festival of freedom on Jan. 20th.

I was just down on The Mall tonight in freezing cold weather doing a night tour of the monuments. There are portable toilets all over even at Metro stations in the suburbs.

Bring little packages of tissues in case the toilets run out of paper.

"My advice: DO NOT drink coffee for breakfast. Even better, have a glass of water at midnight and no liquids afterwards. On a bus tour, everyone voids on the bus again as we go in. That may be the last toilet we see for awhile. I took my own advice and bought--yuk--a package of Depends. Been there done that, and take ALL precautions."

You get paid to give tours? That's the craziest, most alarmist thing I've ever heard. Ridiculous.

Did you give this advice to your clients?

Of course, I will give this advice to my tour clients. You may think it is crazy but I am responsible for seeing that they have a good time.

I will have some extra Depends in case anyone wants one (offered at the hotel to the adult chaperones, as I have a tour of kids). I will also have little packages of tissues in case any of the toilets has no paper--which is bound to happen.

DC is literally papered with portable toilets (pun intended), but, if we have the expected crowd, it won't be enough. Remember we do have this every 4 years hear and, unlike you, I have experience with this. Before I got my guide license, I never went downtown for these events. Now I go because I have to and I go prepared. These events are totally chaotic and constant problem solving. You also need a sense of humor to survive it.

Most people who move to DC go to the 4th of July celebration the first year. Then they never go again and watch on TV. There is a reason they do that and the same goes for inaugurations. Most of those who attend are from out of town.

I went to Eisenhower's Inaugural. No tickets. I was with a school group and we bused in for the day. I still remember seeing his bald head gleaming in the sunlight. Could not hear anything. No TV's then, but it was a special day and I am glad I went. Very sorry I am such a wuss that I am not going this year. It will be the event of a lifetime even if you on see it on the big TVs and are very cold. Depends is a great idea!!

Inaugurations are very different now from what they were in Eisenhower's day. I was out searching for long underwear today and finally had success. The problem was the bottoms. Every place had some tops in ugly colors but, bottoms only in immense sizes. I finally found what I wanted (but not in the color I preferred to buy), but it took some hunting.

Foot warmers are all sold out everywhere. I have my first group--a band group from Illinois in for the parade--tomorrow at 10:00am.

For anyone coming to the concert tomorrow afternoon: I have heard that once there are 20,000 people within the reflecting pool area, they will turn others away. Arlington Memorial Bridge will be closed to traffic in both directions (pedestrian traffic as well). The Teddy Roosevelt Bridge will be outbound traffic only.

Re Depends, I think they are only for small amounts of urine that may escape, but not to be used instead of a toilet! I can't imagine. You are going to have some chair sopping up to do (or worse) and I think not drinking liquids for 12 hours beforehand will get you some dizzy freezing tourists! Let us know how it turns out.

Depends are not designed to be used. They are "just in case". They do hold profuse amounts but I don't imagine they would be comfortable "full". People do use them on New Year's Even in Times Square for the same reason. It is the "better to be safe than sorry" theory.

LOL SeaUrchin, I can't imagine either! Of course I am one that does not want to be in huge crowds and I can't stand bitterly cold weather so I am not jealous of people that will be in DC. I will enjoy watching the inaugrations from the comfort of my home while enjoy hot coffee even if it does start at 6:00am pst.

Does urine freeze? I hope I don't picture all the tourists with slushees in their pants.

I think your advice is a bit over the top. I know it's well-meant, and i realize you're a pro, but I think you're overdoing it.

First of all, it is not difficult to find long underwear, tops and bottoms, in a variety of sizes, and a pro would know to order it online in advance, or pay for expedited shipping. Most people who live in DC probably own some already. You don't? Thin silk long underwear is available at a number of retailers, both brick and mortar and online.

Secondly, I have been to three inaugurals, one with tickets to a standing area, two without. i walked all day, stood all day, and did not pee until I got home. How did I perform this miracle? Well, I wasn't sucking down liquids, for one thing, and for another, people do it all the time. Depends? Unless you have a bladder problem, that is truly taking it too far.

Btw, I notice you say you never went to large events until after you got your guide's license--do tell! You act like you're going to war, not to a festive event.

I agree that it will be cold, crowded and short on creature comforts on the streets of DC on Tuesday. I just object to scare-mongering. People go to large outdoor events all the time and manage just fine.

Today I heard on CNN that fearsome predictions of outrageous physical suffering may deter most people from going, meaning crowds will be a fraction of those expected.

That would be a shame, if some stayed away because of a reluctance to don adult diapers for the day.

I can imagine that being a tour guide could be a pain at an event like this. You have some responsibility for the well being of those on the tour, not just yourself. In some ways it's like traveling with a bunch of your own young kids. Some will look to you for everything, (including helping them in the PP).

I've traveled with a group of adults to foreign places and there are a few who as "J62, where are we eating lunch. J62, where are the bathrooms. J62, I'm tired, can we go back to hotel." I don't like being a tour guide, paid or unpaid, except for my immediate (and I mean very immediate) family.

IMO going to the inauguration is one of those lifetime experiences. Not just to witness history from the comfort of ones sofa, but to actually be part of it. Advice about how to prepare is valuable. Alarmist warnings are not.

Train ticket. $20
Long underwear $10
Depends $5
Actually being there, priceless.

If the temperature in DC turns out to be in the low 30s, as currently predicted, you'll be able to tell where visitors are from by how they're dressed: The visitors from Florida will be wearing parkas, mittens, etc., and the visitors from Minnesota will be in shorts. When my daughter attended college in DC, she noticed that even over the whole winter, the kids didn't adjust to temps that were different from what they'd grown up with.

For those of us from the frozen north, DC is just not that cold. Here in Massachusetts, the temp has jut risen above freezing for the first time since last Wednesday, we had daytime highs below 20 a couple of times in the past week. We're ready for anything!

When I read the title of this post, I expected a touching tribute, written by an American War Veteran, about the pomp and circumstance of American Inaugurations... perhaps from someone living in DC who has attended many and was going to offer a moving historical perception.

Not.

Absolutely amazing . . poster passes on essentially the same information and advice the major networks are saying and gets bashed!!

Downtown DC is already - currently - a madhouse. That concert (on HBO) is a great preview of how bad it's going to be. You will have only a view if there's a jumbotron showing it to you.

Despite the number of porta-potties, reports are that there are 6000 people per porta-potty. Depends might be overkill, but restricting liquid intake is a sound idea. Local businesses and buildings are likely not be open.

It's COLD out there. You need warm clothes in layers and shoes that will allow you to stand and walk for a long period of time.

Hey, my bro-in-law is taking 100 potties to Union Station -- just mention my name to the attendant and you'll get a good seat! ;)
A competitor got the contract for the Mall -- 5,000 units. B-I-L was asked to help them out, but he declined. Guests from up-state NY were downtown yesterday (Archives and concert) and had a great time. They watched the concert on the big screen. It was being part of the crowd and being there that mattered.
Still debating whether to go to work tomorrow or go down later in the morning to join them ....

When I was in Grant Park on election night, we couldn't eat, drink, or go to the bathroom for 9 hours, without losing our hard earned spot ten rows from the front. To pass the time we made friends -- we brought silly, easily portable games (like the trivial pursuit cards) and played with the people around us. We also played "spot the Secret Service on the rooftops." I swear, 50 people were playing with us. Everyone was in a fantastic mood, and it was great.

Was it ideal? Of course not. But as soon as Obama took the stage, it made everything worth it. I have a good friend in DC who was at the concert yesterday and is going to the Mall on Tuesday and echos what was said -- just being in the moment with all those people was thrilling. Don't drink a lot of water, and pee before you leave, and have patience and a sense of humor.

I really regret that I'm not in DC right now.

Happy to say I lost none of the kids I was guiding through the 3 days of the inauguration trip. Getting off The Mall was a horror show.

I had one band group (they were in the parade) on the 18th and then 7th & 8th graders the 19th-21st. I have to say it was quite something being in DC before sunrise (tour buses were allowed in; private cars were not). People were walking quietly in large numbers to The Mall to witness history. Our parking space was in front of Phillips Seafood Restaurant in SW DC, so we had a very convenient spot.

We ended up craning our necks to watch on a jumbotron between the Natural History Museum and the Smithsonian Castle. The head teacher was just so excited to be there; he took over 600 photos in 2 days! I am happy to say, none of my group booed Bush. I thought that was bad form even though I am a Democrat and long time enthusiastic Obama supporter. Like him or not, it is about the office not the man. Sometimes it is better to stand there and say nothing.

It ended up being quite an experience just being there. For those of us peasants who could not actually see a thing in real time, the story was the people you met. There were NO arrests for ANYTHING. That many people together and absolutely no incidents and people just celebrating just made me proud to be an American. I would never have attempted to go if I had not been guiding, but I ended up glad that I did.

My house was loaned out to a neighbor who needed extra space for overflow inauguration guests. No, I did not rent the house for money. I loaned it to him (which means it was a gift). I returned home with the house the same as when I left it with a few sheets and towels to launder and did someone a favor. To my mind that was much better than taking a risk renting to people you don't know--and I made friends for life. They left me a few small gifts (flowers, a gift card at the supermarket and the like). It was exactly what I would have done and I felt good about it.

I got home on January 21st at about 2:30pm and slept for 3 hours before doing the laundry, etc.

My groups had a marvelous time despite not being able to get into any of the Smithsonian Museums. We were able to see monuments, souvenir vendors and more people than I have have ever seen in DC. The band group even saw Bush's helicopter land with him on the White House lawn for the last time.

There were sufficient toilets and manageable waits. I wore Depends as insurance but, as it turns out, that precaution was unnecessary. Better to be safe than sorry.

We got to The Mall at about 7:30am. Biggest problem was cold hands and feet (especially feet for me). I had the kids jump up and down periodically. I met a lot of very nice and very happy people and ended up so happy that I experienced this even if I did not see anything.

All is well that ends well but I am so glad it is over and went well. We have had our peaceful transition of power. For me, no matter who is coming and who is going, that is always a time to stop, watch and be proud of being an American.

Sounds great and , best, you did not lose any kids. Always a worry with a group of kids.Get some rest and thanks for letting us know your adventure.

Leaving The Mall was chaos and we counted the kids a lot. There were 5 teachers and 50 kids. Each teacher was responsible for 10 kids. Not having parents as chaperones was a huge help. Some parents always treat these kid trips to DC as vacations and don't do their job. They also start complaining about everything and forget that these are kid trips no deluxe adult trips. Teachers take their jobs very seriously and it is easier to work with them than parents. I cannot be responsible for the kids on such a short tour as I don't know them. On a longer trip with adults I would quickly get to know all of them.

Everyone survived and the kids will remember their trip forever.