Surrounded By Thousands Who Love Each Other

And it was amazing.

The plan to go into Philly was last second, to be among so many at Independence Hall with President Barack Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, and of course, Democrat Elect for President, Madame Secretary Hillary Clinton. History was being made last night and hopefully today. In the birthplace of our nation last night, I was there to hear and be among the many, who love each other and believe that Love Trumps Hate.

So it started on Facebook like this:

My friends were like, Hey, who wants to drive down? A few of us were like Me!!! I know Philly very well having lived there in Center City on 15th and Locust. So we decided to take the PATCO train from Collingswood, NJ across and get off at 8th and Market. But first, teh kids had to get picked up from school, etc. So we didn’t get there until pretty late.

Market Street was shut down and everyone was re-routed around Independence Hall, (due to security), and we ended up in a LOOOONG line all the way down to Lombard St. to Jim’s Cheesesteaks on South St.(my favorite place, forget Pat’s or Gino’s!). We kind of knew we weren’t going to get very close to anything. The main thing was to be there, with the kids. I wanted my 10 year old daughter to be there, but she’s just getting over a head cold and still has a very nasty cough. There were a lot of families there with their children, moms with their daughters, both old and young. But my friend Jen drove her mini van with her 2 youngest, and our friend Kim and her oldest daughter joined us.

We did hear Bruce and Jon Bon Jovi, BOTH from New Jersey so my home state was very well represented thank you very much 😉 There were protests of course, but those of us for Hillary, we were so nice, and polite. Everyone was happy to be there, it was like a big happy family. You couldn’t have  asked for a more beautiful fall evening, no one was complaining. The common goal was that we were THERE. Not once did I feel like my life was threatened or did I feel unsafe. Even in the massive crowds.

Below are my 2 friends and the children.Many people were taking advantage of this opportunity to make some money. You could buy buttons while in line.
These guys were having pizza delivered and selling it with beer to those standing in line from their apartment stoop.
You could buy t-shirts.
We all loved this guy, he constructed a screw and sat on it with a sign that reads,”SCREW TRUMP”.
He was a big hit with everyone except the Trump protestors that came over and with their signs and screamed at us.
And then of course there were the extreme “Christian haters”, and I honestly have no idea why they call themselves Christians, because they go against everything that Jesus teaches about love and peace.
But like I said, overall, everyone was just happy to be there last night. We felt safe, not violated, not worried(at least I didn’t), I mean, yes, it was crazy crowded, but not out of complete control. No fighting, no craziness.
This young man in the wheelchair I think was trying to get in with a press pass of some sort….
These people were right behind us. At one point I broke away from my friends and went to wiggle my way to the protestors.
This little girl was singing about how we were all going to hell…it was very sad 🙁
This guy who portrays Jesus goes around Philly a lot…
 Apparently Jesus is going to vote for The Don Trump…So that was the cause for a riled up discussion.
I got people to have fun for me in front of my camera.
Below is the artist who created these paintings of President and First Lady Obama and Madame Secretary Hillary Clinton.
These Don Trump supporters kept spewing their hate by driving by…
A very kind woman photographer who had a ladder lent me a couple of seconds and I managed to get this one image of President Obama during his speech.
Like a said, a lot of people brought their entire families with them and that was wonderful to see.
This little boy climbed the ladder too to see The President and Hillary Clinton, he was that excited to see them both, and he was only about 8 years old.
I made some new friends and we watched Hillary’s speech on Facebook Live 🙂

My friends and I got back on the PATCO via the 8th and Market stop easily enough although we had to go around to Arch St. over. The fun part was that we got to walk in the middle of the streets.

We were tired from being on our feet, thirsty, a bit hungry, the kids were just awesome, they stuck it out and were amazing. But they wanted to be there, and that’s the best part. The kids that were there WANTED to be there! They were excited to see the President of the United States of America and the next President, a woman, who is a mom and and a grandma. They can relate to that.

Below is my iPhone video from where we were standing last night.

iPhone photos:

I decided to use my new Olympus OM-D E-M5II mirrorless camera and I rented the Olympus M. Zuiko ED 12-40mm f2.8 Pro lens and the Olympus FL-600R flash. However I didn’t know that there is a secret to that lens to enable the autofocus and that is to pull out a certain ring on the lens, and so all night I was really frustrated and had to be in Manual focus in nearly all dark situations, like years ago with my Nikon FM camera. I couldn’t figure it out, so I took out my Olympus M. Zuiko ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6R lens, and then the autofocus was just fine. I also had a learning curve with the flash as well. I’m just so used to Canon, so I got everything figured out. I didn’t want to return that Pro lens though, it was really nice and now that I know what to do, I wish that I had more time with it. I have to say, I carried 2 lenses and a flash in 1 pack that was attached to my Think Tank Photo Modular system all night and it weighed next to nothing! I SUPER loved that.

A huge thank you to my parents who enabled me to go last night and helped out with our daughter. Without you both, I would not have been able to go. I love you both very much. And thank you to my friends, I’m so happy that I went!

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