After the inauguration madness, I'm exhausted.

I'll try to put up a post detailing our Inauguration Day experience in the next day or two. In the meantime, you can see a few photos here.

the inauguration is coming!

The town is about to go into full-fledged crazy mode for the weekend's inaugural festivities. I've already had the pleasure of sitting in unusual traffic jams thanks to new road closures to accommodate the new First Family, and starting Saturday or Sunday it appears cars will not be welcome at all in this city.

The news has been a steady flood of warnings - traffic will be at a standstill, Metro won't be able to move the crowds, no one will actually be able to get anywhere near the inauguration events - except hidden in the torrent are a few drops of conflicting optimism - the crowd estimates have been revised downward by a factor of at least two (from a wildly inflated initial number), the number of buses applying for parking downtown was underwhelming, there are still hotel rooms available in D.C.

It seems like this will be a massively crowded event and traffic is going to be impossible (don't even try to get in from Virginia - you can't) but outside of the near-freezing temperatures I'm looking forward to making my way into the heart of the craziness Tuesday (not to mention the extra-long weekend).

White Christmas

Square Butte and Round Butte
Originally uploaded by slack13

A traditional holiday with everyone home has become a rarity for my family. This year we not only managed to get everyone in the same place for the holiday, we also had an even-rarer White Christmas (even on the often-frigid plains of Montana, snow on the ground has been scarce for recent Dec. 25ths).

The weather contributed a nice backdrop for the vacation, although it also nearly derailed my family's plans of Christmas proximity. We came by planes, trains and automobiles, and in every case were delayed as we tried to make our way across country toward central Montana.

My sister was the first to attempt the journey, driving cross-country with a friend, and a blizzard stranded them for an extra day in South Dakota. Our flight was delayed long enough we were 15 minutes late for a connecting flight in Denver. The airline's first response was to tell us every seat into the state of Montana was full for the next three days, getting us home on Christmas, but with an unwanted stay in Colorado. Thankfully, enough other people were delayed a standby spot was easy to come by a few hours later - someone else got the problem of a very extended Denver layover.

My brothers both decided rail was the way to go; one came from the West and one from the East. The Eastern route was the more troubled of the two - the train didn't even leave Chicago until about 24 hours after the scheduled departure, leading my brother and his wife to explore the confines of Union Station for a day. The weather in Oregon nearly shut down all transportation there, but Amtrak delivered my Western brother only 8 hours late or so.

The holiday itself provided much opportunity to catch up - the entire sibling set hadn't been together for more than three years, and three out of four partners came along as well. The weather stayed cold, but not horribly so - the snow stayed on the ground and the wind (mostly) stayed away, providing a crisp setting for those who chose to wander out in the elements, and a perfect scene through the windows for those who preferred to stay within range of the wood stove. A day on the ski slopes gave us some of the best conditions I've experienced in years, and there was even a mini-reunion for my high school class (we had six of 13 classmates in one place, which qualifies in my eyes).

The main problem, as always, was the return. I could have used a few more days out West.