My absence this weekend was due to our short whirl wind trip to DC to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity.  We were joined by hundreds of thousands of like minded people in an amazingly peaceful and respectful crowd.

On Sat. we headed for the rally from the Rockville stop on the Red line at around 10:30.

The lines for tickets were long but moved fast.  When the train arrived it was packed to the gills and standing room only, despite Rockville being only the second stop on the line.  We managed to squeeze into the packed car.

We were packed in like sardines but at each stop there were hoards of people waiting to get on.

The people by the doors started yelling, Noooooooooooooooo! every time the doors would open.   It had little effect.  Once we got off the Metro and surfaced the streets were full of  people.

We headed to the mall and encountered a dragon on the way. (the Abraxas Dragon from Burning Man to be precise)

After that we just walked the mall moving from place to place and enjoying all of the signs and costumes.

We even saw his noodleness himself, the Flying Spaghetti Monster. More of what we saw can be seen on my Flickr account.  It was hard to hear what was being said if you weren’t right up near the speakers, which we weren’t so we just enjoyed being there.  The Metro was packed heading home too and my girls fell asleep on the platform but we were able to wangle them and some nice people on the Metro gave up their seats for us.  I was amazed at how wonderful and courteous all of the people we encountered were.  The best part of the day was when I cuddled with my girls in bed after a long day and asked them if they had a good time and they enthusiastically responded with “It was great!” and “That was awesome”.