Rally To Restore Sanity

So, Jason and I are big fans of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Early this fall, he announced his rally to restore sanity. He felt that not all Americans are out and about calling President Obama, Hitler (even those that disagree with Obama's policies). Not the majority of Americans are out at rallies every weekend waving hateful signs...because most sane people are out living their lives, doing what they have to do to make ends meet, spending time with their families, etc. So, he asked for a gathering of people that can agree to disagree on politics. It sounded so fun to us. But I was too reasonable to jump on board immediately. It took Jason several weeks to convince me to drop all of our responsibilities around here to go to the rally...even though I really wanted to.

Obviously we found a way to go to the Rally To Restore Sanity. While planning this trip, the irony of the seemingly insane traveling plan to get to the Rally To Restore Sanity was quite funny to me. Of course, it turns out that the week leading up to the rally was actually quite sane and downright enjoyable! :)

The morning of the rally, you would have thought it was Christmas morning for little kid Jason. He was so pumpled about it! We got up early, had breakfast, then got to the Metro station. It was PACKED! There were crazy long lines at the station to buy passes. Luckily we still had balances on our passes from the previous days. People had their signs, were smiling, laughing...everyone was in such a good mood. The energy was delightful!

Luckily our Metro station was at the very end of the line...because we filled up the train, packed in like sardines. Nobody else could enter the train any other stop after us. I have to say, there was nobody else on the train with young children. Jason used the opportunity to say, "Wow, the metro is busy today...looks like everyone else has the same idea to go to the Air & Space Museum today."

When we got to the metro, it was shocking the number of people at the station. It was slow moving getting to the up escalator. A couple of people decided they'd try to go up the down escalator. It actually provided entertainment for the 100's of people waiting to go up. If they made it up, we all cheered and clapped. If they fell, or couldn't go quite fast enough, we all boo'd or awe'd. The boys got a kick out of that.

Once we got the the rally, we got as close as we could to one of the jumbotrons. We laid out the blanket for the boys and set up camp. We watched people parade by with their rally signs (and it was truly like a parade...they'd turn so you could snap a picture...people were so proud of their signs). Some people were dressed in Halloween costumes. But everybody was having so much fun. It was just a big giant party on the National Mall, really.

Of course, the spots filled in more and more. And unfortunately we lost cell phone service due to all the people!!! We had plans to meet our friends Courtney and Jeremy at the rally. But we had no way to contact them to let them know where we were. :( That was the biggest let down of the day...because we really wanted to visit with them while we were in town.

It got so crowded that people were standing shoulder to shoulder. The boys were protected in a little 4x4 square on the ground. They were playing with their Leapsters just about the whole time. Until just prior to the show starting, James had to go potty. The porta potties were probably about 30 yards away...but it was almost impossible to access because of all the people! Jason took him. He said that James just tapped people in the shoulders, while Jason held him, and James would say, "excuse me, can you please get out of my way." About 2/3rd through the show, James had to go potty again. I took him that time. And it literally took me about 35 minutes round trip with him. We had to weave through people, and at times, I had to send James ahead of me, while crouching down to his level to weave between all of the legs. It was crazy! When we got to the potty, people were sitting on TOP of the porta potties and were surrounding them. We could only open the door about 8 inches wide because people were packed in front of the doors. It was really nuts how many people were there!

All in all, the show was pretty good. I won't go into all the details. There were performers, entertainers, and Jon Stewart spoke a serious note at the end.

I'm glad we went to the rally. I thought that would be the highlight of the trip. And though it was good...I'd have to say that the week long journey to get there with my family was the absolute highlight of the trip!

The next day, our friend Courtney graciously gave us a ride to the airport...and we were able to visit a tiny bit with her on the way. Wished we could have visited longer. The airport was decked out in halloween decorations (it was Halloween day). While standing in the security line, I busted out the candy corn I had stashed in my purse for Halloween. It was only 8:30am...but my kids needed it for an extra punch of energy to get through that crazy line. I started offering it to other passengers in line. People were digging the candy corn. They'd all be so polite and say no thank you, then would see another passenger accept, and change their mind and ask for just a couple. :)

So many airport employees were dressed up. This was so fun for the boys! On our Southwest airplane, the flight attendants handed out some halloween stuff to the boys. It was a direct flight to New Orleans. Once we arrived there, my dad picked us up, brought us to Jason's parents house...where we visited a bit before gathering our pets and hitting the road to P'cola!

We called to have pizza delivered around 10 minutes prior to getting home. Right when we got home (around 5pm), we got the boys dressed in their costumes...ate a couple of pieces of pizza...and darted out the door to our friends' house a couple of neighborhoods over for some trick-or-treating!

What a day! What a trip!