Day 4 of our Great Adventure

As Hannah said, the concert Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial was fabulous. So many amazing entertainers who were absolutely honored to perform for their new president. People are so excited and so ready for this change. Every time the camera would pan to Obama, the crowd would go wild. People were dancing arm in arm and singing along to U2 and Garth Brooks, etc... When our bus first pulled in to the parking area, our group was led through security and very near the stage. We were so excited, thinking we were going to have special seating again. Turns out we are still being very well cared for, but not receiving quite the VIP status we had on the day of the train ride. And that is ok. We still had a great vantage point for the concert, and hey, a free ride to and from! Not to mention the tickets. Our staffer, Kevin, has been a wonderful and patient guide. Angela Bassett was a couple of people ahead of us in the security line, and we saw the red headed doc from Gray's Anatomy... blah, blah.

We met our friends Gerred and Holly from Kansas City for dinner last night at a great little Italian place, Sesto Senso, near our hotel. They are moving here next month and were house hunting all weekend, so we got to share lots of stories with each other. Great time.

Today we slept in too late and missed most of the service opportunities, but we decided as a family to make a commitment to service when we get home. Hannah is going to do literacy tutoring when she gets back to Chicago, and I've always wanted to volunteer at Operation Breakthrough, so there you go. Michelle Obama is making community service her work as First Lady, and has quite a background in this area already, so we have heard a lot about this over the past couple of days. Both she and Jill Biden spoke briefly at the children's concert, and Michelle touched on service again and spoke to the kids about it, too. The concert was dedicated to the men and women in the military and their families, which was touching. There were quite a lot of parents in uniform in attendance with their children. Miley Cyrus and her dad performed, as well as a Camp Rock singer, whose name I don't remember but who Grace loves. And Grace, who says she doesn't really like the Jonas Brothers very much, sure seemed to be having a good time. We all did. Jamie Foxx did a song, and George Lopez came out, Queen Latifah, Usher. It was a great time. We met our friend Rob Smith and his daughter, Tessa, also from Kansas City, afterwards and made our way through incredible crowds on the Metro back to our hotels. There was a line probably 20 people wide and a block long just to get down into the Metro stop. Crazy crowds. But everyone is pretty good natured about it all. We are spoiled, however, and I'm looking forward to getting back with our "train friends" tomorrow and being shuttled to the inauguration on our bus.

Jim just went out to get us some snacks to get us through the day tomorrow, and he said there are soldiers posted at the corners now in our district. Security is really going to tighten up overnight. There are various layers of clearances as you get closer to the Capitol. Our bus leaves at 6 a.m., and we travel to another hotel for our security clearance. We will literally be outside from 8 a.m. until probably 4 p.m. Brrrr... Imagine, the best is still yet to come. When Barack Obama takes the oath of office and gives the Inaugural Address, it will all come together. Wow. Then the Neighborhood Ball... Beyonce is going to sing the song they will dance to, and Stevie Wonder will be performing, along with a host of other celebs who I can't even remember anymore. What a day. We better turn in and get some sleep!

Alicia