DC

I don't have many regrets in my life. They are unhealthy, depressing things that eat away at you. But one thing Tom and I will regret probably for the rest of our lives is not taking my brother up on his offer of inauguration tickets. Granted, it was vague whether or not the tickets were good and he found out after we had bought our plane tickets, so changing our travel plans to stay that extra day would have resulted in pretty steep fees. But he found out the location of the tickets on Friday, the day we arrived, and we walked over to the Capitol Building so he could show us exactly where they were, and man, did it feel like a shot through the heart after a year-and-a-half of following, supporting, and basically being in love with Barack Obama.

Deep regrets aside, yesterday was an amazing day for our country, for history, and for me personally. Hope, change, love, peace--that crowd was amazingly huge and everyone was there for positive reasons with happiness in their hearts. I can only describe the mood in DC this weekend as neighborly and loving. People were saying hello to strangers and riding this great, enormous wave of goodwill. It was awesome. If we all can just channel Obama's energy and keep this friendliness and positivity going, we are going to be just fine. We had a fantastic time visiting Andrew and his girlfriend Jen, walking around the mall, visiting the National Gallery, and seeing friends. Here are some highlights:

My car's thermometer the morning we flew to DC.
No, it's not Photoshopped.

Really beautiful gold script type carved into marble
at the new Capitol Building Visitor Center.

Andrew and Tom puffed out in down at the Visitor Center.

View of the dome from the Visitor Center.

What it's all about.

At Eastern Market.

Cool LED light art installation at the National Gallery.

This is so ridiculous I had to take a picture of it.
I especially like how "sports nuts" are listed on here.

As close as we got to the real thing.

Hard to see, but this is the Edge with the closed
caption "What more in the name of love." with the
(real) Washington Memorial in the background.