Official Free Republic W2 Inaugural Ball Reports and Photos Thread (Post 'em Here!)

The Free Republic W2 Inaugural Ball was a wonderful, but exhausting time. I'm still wiped out. But, I know folks are waiting for pics and stories. I'll add my observations later, but I wanted to share one thing before I head back to the hotel to see 'Governor' Robinson and his family off.

We received a phone call from the White House yesterday. The Office of Presidential Scheduling called to pass along President Bush's regrets for not being able to attend our ball (we had mailed a formal invitation to him and his family.) We were told, "He hopes it went well."

Governor Huckabee and Capitol Offense rocked the house well past midnight. Impressionist Billy Finch did a wonderful job as Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful. Sauropod's video presentaion was stunning. The speeches by the Iraqis were very moving. WMAL's Michael Graham did a great job opening the show. Nick Danger was excellent emceeing the Eagle Awards. The St. John's College High School JROTC were magnificent presenting the colors. Richard Poe was busy all night signing copies of Hillary's Secret War. Seeking the Truth and his wife, Darlie, couldn't take a break--their 0Cents.com merchandise was very popular.

Thanks to all for their hard work making sure the ball went so well. And a special thanks to the active duty service members from Walter Reed and the Pentagon, as well as the veterans, who accepted our invitations as honored guests to the ball.

Please post your reports and photos or links here. I know alot of folks are traveling home, so check back over the next few day as folks check back in on FR.

Once more, with feeling!

Southbound on the North East Corridor

Mr. & Mrs. Gigantor ready to party in our nation's Capitol!

My buddy BrianNYPD at the portal to the party!

Gigantor & Jim Rob!

A table full of Freepers!

Command Sergeant Major and Gigantor

Lone Star Beer is pretty good stuff!

The Sheik & Gigantor:

BrianNYPD and the Sheik:

Governor Mike Huckabee rocks on bass!

And Hussein was at the game...

The crowd goes wild!

One of the candidates in the Iraq elections!

Kristin & Gigantor - we finally got our name tags - yay!

The crowd are loving it!

The best dressed Ball in D.C.

It's not over yet - Mr. & Mrs. Gigantor get a few last moves in on the dance floor!

At the After-Party:

The perfect ending to a perfect day!

But wait, there's more - waiting at Union Station for our train, who do I bump in to, but, my "Pal" Al!

Here is the picture that says it all: take that Bruce Springsteen!

What a great time!

Came down with Dutchy the night before and had dinner with the crew!

Met a few Freepers for the first time, a few the second like Synchro, Basil, Stay True, Glaswegian and his sons and daughter, 3d Joy, Diogenesis, Chicago Lady and her friends, Richard Poe whose book I publically promise to actually buy some day, BufordP, JimRob, JohnRob and family, Nutmeg and Zelig, BillF, Stanz, Pond7, Henery, LeoFL, Peter W. Kessler, Nick Danger, Tammy, Tammy's Mom, Bert, Jenny, KoKo, GOPYouth, twit, Mrs Twit, Basil, Straight Vermonter, GWforBush, HeyLady, roses0508, usflagwaver, firenews

I hope I got that right.

The meal was great.

The next morning, me and Dutchy went to 7th and Pennsylvania to wait in line, was told we were too early for entry, so just hung around a bit, this was about 7:30 or so.

While waiting there, Chris Mathews showed up and I asked him in front of the crowd if he was going to apologize to Michelle Malkin for his abuse of her. I had forgotten Kay Baily Hutchinson's name then, so, I didnt mention her, and totally forgot about John O'Neill and the abuse he gave them, also.

We went up to kristinn's apartment, got the signs and stuff and went downstairs to wait in line, and found ourselves in the midst of 500 to 600 people, almost 50% or more leftists, and 60% of them had their leftist signs.

Something to note: Almost all of their signs were pre-printed professional signs, only about 24% of their signs were hand writen signs from Staples like ours, their signs were clearly bought by some rich millionaire who provided the signs using money gained from his left wing causes and socialist supporters.

I started to chant for president Bush and the leftists went crazy shouting us down. The Republicans in the crowd were intimidated to silence, but not Freepers. I gave it back to them. Unfortunately I did get angry and wasn't as tactful as I wished, but, hey, they needed it.

We arrived at our spot about 11:30 after waiting in line 2 hours through security. Our area was right in front of the street and we had a clear unobstructed view of the parade to follow.

Our numbers were small, the security was awesome, but slow, I am not sure they knew it would be so long a wait for most people, but they might have planned it that way to slow down the crowd.

I called in to a local radio station to let them know the atmosphere and told them of the verbal abuse of the leftists and their profane signs. The local talk show host, Jim Vicevitch was gracious and also well informed as to who these people were and their communist organization as stated on their own website.

We hung out in the cold with occasional Freepers and Freeperettes chasing coffees for people there, and I mistakenly drank Kristinn's Latte! SORRY!

We did get a heads up from the security there that the Parade had started, and I announced that people should get their cameras ready and we all stood expectantly at the ready, cameras pointed to the street!

We did view Bush the Father first, some thought they saw the great stain maker also, we did see many SUV's go by, but then, as jubilantly expected, we saw our President, George W. Bush come by.

His car was a dark colored, heavily tinted vehicle, but we could tell that it was him, we could see a little light on him waving to us and our crowd.

While looking at us, he did see our signs, and one of us noticed that he waved, looked at us, then almost doubled over when reading our signs in laughter, most likely the AMERICAN SECTOR sign in our opinion.

Laura Bush also looked at us, waving, and she looked wonderful, even through the dark tinted glass.

The Ball was great, too, I was saddened to not see the huge turnout we had last time, but the people we met we great, the food was fantastic, and the speakers were top notch. It wa good to see soem Ct Freepers and Freeperettes like the loively and gracious LisaFab who I want to also publically apologize to her for being too busy to say hello politely to, I was in a rush to get my camera or something, I forgot, but it was nice to see her, too!

I wish I remembered their names, but the gentlemen from Iraq were the best part of the show. If not for President Bush, they would not be able to thank us for the democratic elections that will take place for the first time in recorded history in Iraq, and these men were genuinely grateful to President George Bush!

And a good time was had by all!

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