Obama-cation Day 2

If yesterday was the calm before the storm, then today the thunder began to rumble. Hundreds of thousands of people descended upon the Lincoln Memorial today to attend the free concert. Subways were packed, streets were impassable, and all roads were blocked by police brigades. (Notice the gazillion people perched around the Lincoln Memorial Reflection Pool in the background.) Chadd and I decided to forgo the concert for a chance to see other sights.
We also saw the Washington Memorial up close and personal. But it was surrounded by SWAT members looking down on the concert crowd.
We went to the White House visitor's center--hoping to get a glimpse of the White House--but were unable to see anything. Police will not even let you near enough to get a glimpse. We were, however, approached by a member of the Squirrels for Justice Lobby! While we were enjoying a cookie break in front of the White House, a dang squirrel jumped in Chadd's lap and tried to take the cookie away from him! They fought over it long enough for me to get my camera out. The squirrel broke off half of our $3 cookie with its grubby little hands and took off with it!

After our cookie incident, Chadd and I went to the Holocaust Museum and spent 4 hours touring the exhibits. That museum was an unforgettable experience--haunting, somber, and surreal--I recommend it to anyone visiting D.C. The museum's depictions of the WWII atrocities were not subtle, they were meant to shock the soul and they did just that.

Even though Chadd and I left the museum with heavy hearts, our solace was quickly interrupted by the thousands of people swarming the streets and the National Mall. There were so many people, you could not even get into the subway station! So we opted to walk the 3 miles to the nearest above ground station and catch a glimpse at Capitol Hill flooded in lights. Quite beautiful.