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My wife and I went last night, with her catching up with me at the metro. We got there at @ 6:30 PM, and were lucky to get a spot in the viewing line that gave us a great view over the pool of the steps on the west side of the capitol. We got to see a lot of detail.

The experience was incredibly moving, and the sight of our silent servicemen and women standing guard is worth the long wait in summery conditions. Since we saw other people do it, we stepped into a squared off corner of the line at the very end and offered a silent prayer of gratitude and thanks to President Reagan and to God.

Our wait was not too bad. The line starting moving at @ 7:30 or so, and we snaked around through the waiting line. I'm not sure when the public viewing began, but our wait from the time the line started moving was only 2.5 hours. The people that jumped in the line up to 10 hours earlier only shaved an hour or so off of our waiting time.

I originally didn't want to brave the crowd, but my wife expressed an interest in paying our respects. And she's a Democrat (the Zell Miller type - very patriotic). That reminded me that there are hundreds of thousands of people in the country that would love to be able to pay their respects as well if they had been able to make the journey.

If you go there today, don't bring anything. They'll check in cameras, but backpacks, food, etc. are not permitted. They have a multitude of pallets of water, and the Red Cross is there handing out bottles of water to anyone that asks.