We weren’t sure about going down to the Mall for the rally, but after spending about an hour asking each other “Are you sure you want to go?” we decided to at least see how close we could get before succumbing to agoraphobia. We caught the Metro at Grosvenor/Strathmore, where the trains were already pretty full. By the time we made it anywhere near the Mall our Metro car was completely packed – it was so packed we weren’t sure how we’d get off the car, but at Metro Center we joined a scrum headed for the doors and made it out.
From Metro Center we walked over to 7th then down towards the Mall. The crowd got thicker as we got closer, with a knot around the funky dragon thing near the National Archives building. After a bathroom stop at the National Gallery of Art at least one of us was about done, so we headed over to Cafe Du Parc just in time to restore sanity and people watch.