Easter Service and Inaugural Run

Easter Service at National Community Church with friends -- Pastor Mark spoke about Lazarus and how Jesus raised him from the dead. "Never put a comma where God puts a period and never put a period where God puts a comma."  The resurrection changed the punctuation mark. Death is not a period. It's a comma. It's not an end. It's a new beginning.

Skipped lunch @ Union Station.  Gotta save that digestive system for the run ahead, yes her inaugural run.

First no parking, bumper to bumper, was something goin' on? All the cherry blossoms had fallen, 

symbolic of life swept away.  Finally, this never happens to me fortune. While waiting impatiently in a slow crawl, the guy in front of me, all of a sudden decides to pull out.  I almost drove ahead, couldn't believe my eyes and finally instinct got the best of me, and I rolled right in, the best parking spot,  on primetime Constitution, minutes away from the Wall and Lincoln

We started our warm up for her inaugural run, a nice stroll along the Mall to the Lincoln Memorial to witness history in the making

We were once again in luck. The concert was just wrapping up.  We had made it to see the 70th anniversary of Marian Anderson's landmark concert in 1939. The opera singer had been turned away from performing at the DAR Constitution Hall near the White House because she was Black.

Marian Anderson never wanted to be a Civil Rights icon -- all she ever wanted to do was sing, and on April 9, 1939, her dream came true in front of 75,000 on Easter Sunday.

The "President's Own" decked out in red and gold with those funny shoulder ropes.  

We climbed the steps to catch a better view until the National Park Service ranger stopped us cold.  

Minutes later, we tried again, this time we were able to proceed unapprehended.  We couldn't believe our eyes who we saw instead -- former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State, 

General Colin Powell, standing just inches in front of us.  

Gen Powell was in the ceremony to read portions of Lincoln's second inaugural address and to congratulate 200 immigrants who became new U.S. citizens at the event -- wow, what a great American honor, and not bad for our historic, inaugural run.

Then we pressed on with our memorable run along the Tidal Basin to watch the last remnants of the Cherry Blossoms and the 2009 Cherry Blossom Festival.  Though the blossoms had all by now fallen into the tidal basin and along the banks, we were still captivated by the beauty of it all, so entranced that we ran all around the basin and continued on past WW II, Washington and halfway towards the Capitol before we couldn't go on -- we were impressed and it exceeded our most ambitious expectations on this, her inaugural run of the season.