Tales from the Trail

More than 10,000 people from across America — an Eskimo dance group from Alaska, a high school band from Hawaii and enactors of a black Civil War regiment from Massachusetts among them — were in the inaugural parade Tuesday for President Barack Obama. 
 
There were cultural groups, members of the U.S. military, drill teams, Indians, floats, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, Alabama teenagers dressed in vibrant organza hoop skirts and a band of Illinoisans pushing whimsically decorated lawn mowers and carrying brooms among the 103 units from all 50 states in the parade.
 
It took three hours for them all to travel the 1.5 mile route, mostly on broad Pennsylvania Avenue, from the Capitol to the White House.
 
Some of the groups could claim a relationship to the new president.
 
The first band in the parade was from Punahou School in Honolulu, where Obama was a student from fifth through 12th grades.
 
Also in the parade were members of the Naval Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps at Whitney Young High School in Chicago, where Michelle Obama, the president’s wife, was a student from 1977-81.
 
Some of the links were more light-hearted. Obama marched with the “World Famous Lawn Rangers,” the lawn mower team from Arcola, in east-central Illinois, during the 2003 St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Chicago.

 
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Photo credit: Reuters/Larry Downing (Obama and family watch inaugural parade in front of White House Tuesday evening)

WASHINGTON – U.S. President-elect Barack Obama skipped his soon-to-be predecessor’s final address to the nation on Thursday in favor of dining out.
 
At roughly 8 p.m. in Washington, about the time President George W. Bush began his televised speech, Obama left his new temporary residence across from the White House to go out for dinner in a restaurant a few blocks away.
 
The ride in his motorcade lasted about a minute and an aide said his wife, Michelle, accompanied him for the meal.
 
Bush, who was speaking for the final time to the country, reflected on his eight years in office and opened by wishing his successor well.
 
“This is a moment of hope and pride for our whole nation,” Bush said. “And I join all Americans in offering best wishes to President-elect Obama, his wife, Michelle, and their two beautiful girls.”
 
Obama spent the day working at his transition office in downtown Washington, then came to the Blair House — the residence where his family will stay from now until the inauguration — at around 7:15 p.m.
 
He left the house about 45 minutes later and entered the restaurant while Bush was speaking.
 
Maybe he’ll read the transcript?
 
Obama goes to Ohio on Friday to visit a factory. The trip is designed to highlight his proposals to create jobs and boost the economy. On Saturday Obama returns to Washington on a train ride that kicks off several days of inauguration festivities.
 
Obama routinely criticized Bush over domestic and foreign policy during the 2008 election, but the transition of power between the two leaders has proceeded smoothly.
 
Last week Obama had lunch with Bush and the three other living former U.S. presidents at the White House.

Photo Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque. Secret Service agents stand in front of the security canopy after Obama arrived at his temporary residence at Blair House across the street from the White House in Washington January 15, 2009.

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