Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Hi Mr. President!


Did you see me waving?
Today President Obama visited California for the first time since he became president. Had I not just taken off some days for vacation, I would have seriously considered trying to get a ticket for the town hall meeting.
I work in Huntington Beach which is about midway between Long Beach, where the president landed in AirForce One and Costa Mesa, where the town hall meeting was held.
Today, I kind of spaced on the fact he was coming--I could have been listening to the radio or streamed video of the event.
Shortly after 3pm, we heard some heavy-duty aircraft noise (we're close to a Naval Weapons Station too) and my co-worker called out--Hey I bet that's the President! We all ran outside to check it out. I grabbed my camera and attempted to take a few shots.
There were five helicopters--two in the front, one in the middle and two in the rear. That was pretty cool.
I was a little worried that there would be a traffic jam on the way home on the 405--it runs right past Long Beach Airport--but things were clear when I went past at 4:15 or so. As I passed by I searched the runway and sure enough, I saw AirForce One parked way down at the north end of the runway! Yeah!
The Q&A part of the meeting started while I was driving home and when I reached home I rushed into the house and went to turn on the tee-vee but the DV-R red light was on! Oh no! What was recording?!?! Big Joe! Damn...what to do?!?!?
I quickly turned on my computer and finally got a video stream going on KNX.
I thought the questions asked were pretty thoughtful and covered a lot of the issues that are in the forefront today and I thought the answers were good and as detailed as they could have been considering it was all off-the-cuff.
When the program was over I stayed at the computer and tried to catch up on my blog reading. It is a beautiful spring day and the door is open next to me and I hear a familiar sound--more helicopters! I looked to the north just in time to see three military helicopters travelling northwest towards LAX. I think Mr. Obama is following me!
I wonder where he will spend the night? Vandenberg AFB? The guy on the tee-vee said those details were not made available. I can't wait to see how he does on Leno tomorrow.

5 comments:

Jeanna said...

You're lucky you're home, it's gotten cold again.
That's exciting, he's there cuz of Leno, or a bit of shopping?

MaryRuth said...

Jeanna--I think the main reason for the trip was to sort of give California a little presidential love after us getting the cold shoulder treatment for 8 years.
The Leno thing was probably just tacked on.

Miss Healthypants said...

That's freakin' awesome! *smiles*

I met Al Gore once at the St. Patty's Day parade here in Chi-town...I think the coolest part was when the Motorcade pulled up right in front of us (in the crowd). It was just so freakin' COOL, you know? :)

MaryRuth said...

MHP--that is pretty neat-o! Did you party for this St. Paddy's? The weather was sure nice for it.

Jeanna said...

That is pretty cool, HP. I catered an event for Geraldine Ferraro at the UW once.