MY FELLOW AMERICANS, IT IS TRUE// I saw the president!

Last Thursday, President Obama flew in via helicopter and made his way through our neighborhood on his first official trip to the valley to attend George Clooney's mansion for a celebrity packed fundraiser.  It turns out that Taylor and I live about a 12 minute drive from this place and started to receive news that our streets would be closing and to expect major delays. But before you start asking for tours of our 19 bedroom estate, just know that we live north of the dividing line known as Ventura Boulevard that separates the the "celebrities" and the commoners. While we would still love to have you over for dinner, we hope you are ok with not being greeted by butlers and valet service upon arrival...

Anyway, feeling very antsy and trapped by the inability to leave the area (NOTHING, afterall, can scare a Los Angelinos more than the prediction of traffic), we decided that we might as well venture out to Laurel Canyon and Ventura to catch a glimpse of the nation's leader driving by. We of course would have preferred to attend the dinner instead of standing on the street, but unfortunately with such short notice, we were only able to scrap up 79 of the 80 GRAND it would have cost to buy a ticket for two.

I'm relatively new to the area, but one thing I have to say, is that valley folk are extremely nice people. No pushing and only some minor occasional screaming (but never directed at me... just the police). Taylor and I pretty much got to the front of the crowd by saying "i'm so sorry- excuse me". (See lady in picture below... total sweet heart, we really liked her) I'd like to think that we eventually got as close as you could get without being shot by the secret service.



Anyway. we waited....and.....and waited... and then.

The moment we were all waiting for.  Several false alarms later, we started to see motorcycle after motorcycle zip by at undeniably illegal speeds, and people started inching out into the streets.  


And sure enough! The flags appeared.  The president arrived!




Naturally, I TOTALLY DROPPED THE BALL... and didn't actually snap a photo when he turned around and did this. but it was still a really surreal experience.  Supporter or not, Obama definitely brings out an emotional surge in people around him.  After he passed by, you could hear people repeating to themselves over and over again "I saw the president, I saw the president! Man, I saw the president!"  Spirits were very high.