Inauguration expedition prep

Because I like to bounce wildly from school-related posts to banality:

I'm preparing to head down to the National Mall to witness the inauguration festivities on Tuesday. The plan is to get down to the Lincoln Memorial, where a jumbotron will be set up at the steps of the memorial. It's far from the Capitol and the parade route, but I'm just looking to be among the hundreds of thousands of people who are heading into D.C. to be a part of this event. It's at my doorstep, so I know I'll regret it if I don't make the effort to trek downtown.

It's going to be cold (about 25-30 degrees with a stiff wind + wind chills in the teens, or at least that's what a recent forecast predicted), so I'm trying to prepare myself for standing in the cold for hours. We went to a Dick's Sporting Goods in Fairfax, Va. yesterday -- as far as I know, most of the outdoor stores inside the Beltway were completely sold out of long underwear and hand warmers -- to pick up some base layers for the event. The long underwear was offered in three weights: lightweight, midweight, and expedition-strength. Although I briefly considered the expedition-strength ("Standing for hours among a huge crowd of people in a barren, windswept swamp qualifies as an expedition, right?"), I stuck with the midweight. I also picked up a pair of heavyweight wool hiking socks -- my first pair! Handwarmers and granola bars were also procured.

We'll see how all this gear works out on Tuesday. I might be hilariously over-outfitted for this "expedition," but better safe than sorry. (Feel free to make fun of me and my outdoor-passive ways, Morgan.)