Xiaoniu 小妞

As I mentioned earlier we attended the NY Governor’s Inauguration today. Mike explained to us on Sunday that it was going to be a big, public event, which is unlike any other previous inauguration in recent history. There were to be food vendors and free shows throughout the day. There was even a free concert: James Taylor, Natalie Merchant and some others that I never heard of. We figured it would be fun and decided to go. We ended up having a pretty good time.

The events were pushed back 1 hour due to wet weather this morning. So, we arrived some time around 11:30 (I can’t remember exactly). The place we parked is where Mike parks for work everyday. Free, easy to access parking, but it was a 15 minute walk to the park. At least the neighborhood is nice. This street borders Washington Park, which from a distance looks nice. I couldn’t help, but take pictures of all the houses.

We walked around the park and decided to park ourselves near the fence not far from the stage, but unfortunately, out of sight of the stage once everybody got into their places. Oh well. If you had good eyes you could see some things in the distance, but we had a good view of the big screens. After a while people filled in behind us. So, we did get a good place.

We stood just in front of the big screen in the far right of this picture. One interesting thing I learned about this spot is that it was right next to the press, who kept taking video and pictures of the crowd. i.e. they were taking pictures of us all day. I wonder how many new casts and newspapers we made it into.

Look at all the news trucks. This is only half of them.

The stage, which we couldn’t see once things got going.

I don’t usually take pictures of people, specifically, but the guy on the left stopped me when I was walking around with James. He asked to talk to me and after a second I realized he wanted to interview me. I said no thanks. He responded that he wasn’t using names. I declined again. I just wasn’t interested at that point in doing an interview and having my voice run on the radio unknown to me. The guy was from 1010 WINS, the biggest news station in NYC, which was cool, but I still wasn’t up for an interview. He found other willing people though.

The state capitol building.

The state education building.

To help kill time while we waited for the festivities to begin I brought James to visit the horses. They were ready to take action in case things got out of hand, which didn’t happen. So, they spent the day on alert and being gawked at by everybody. I have to say that the horses were huge. James was in awe when we got close. Some people touched them, but I figured it would be best to keep James’ small hands away just in case. They are working horses.

Out with the old…

In with the new.

After the speech we made our way to the Empire State Plaza, where there was a young girl showing off her skating skills. We made our way to the Egg for some indoor performances.

The first of many acts was a Chinese group from NYC. They did something with a lion, playing with a ball. The pictures are blurry since it was dark inside and flash wasn’t helping.

The second Chinese act was a ribbon dance (?). This was better than the lion thing.

After the Chinese group was an interpretive dance routine. I really don’t understand what it was all about. The girl that did the dance was very fit, which made it easy on the eyes, but I just don’t understand it. Next was a violinist. She played while two girls slowly made ballet moves around her. After that was a single ballet player that moved around the stage. I wasn’t impressed, but I don’t really like those kinds of acts.

The last act we saw before making our way to the concourse for food was a tap dancing group. They did an excellent job. They had a bongo player that played and then the old guy mimicked the sound with his shoes. Afterwards the girls came in one by one. By the end they were really getting into it. The crowd went nuts when they were done. We left the theater.

James as well as us were anxious due to the lack of food and lack of a nap. It was 3pm by the time we made our way to the concourse for food. This was what we were looking forward to. It was a bit of a disappointment. I had “beef on a weck”, which is a Buffalo sandwich. Blah. It tasted bad and was loaded with horseradish. I ate it and then finished off Sue’s garbage plate (a Rochester special). That wasn’t bad, but wasn’t great either. We finished off with a hot dog (loaded up for Sue), some weird ice cream and cheesecake. I brought my cheesecake home and to be honest it was very good. The best thing we ate there.

When we got home Sue slept on the couch trying to make up lost sleep. It was a long day and lots of walking. She made it find though. Only her feet were sore, which I helped with. I watched the news trying to catch a glimpse of us on there. No luck. They only showed the crowd from a distance. They did make a big deal of the food on the news, but all I could do was shake my head. Oh well. We enjoyed ourselves regardless.