Yesterday, my sweetheart and I spent a total of five hours on our feet and waiting in line to first, cast our ballots, and second, to attend the Obama/Biden rally at the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise, FL, which you may have seen if you watched the last 3 minutes of Obama's half hour ad on TV last night.

 Here are some decidely amateur photos (with amateur uploading) of the day.

Thank heavens we finally had out first "cold front" of the winter season this week; the temperature at the height of the afternoon was only 76F and the breeze had a slight chill in it.  The air was super fresh and dry (for us)  so all the time in the sun was very comfortable.

First we voted.  This is from the end of the line to the poll  building(Cooper City/Davie Public Library)

1 hr later, from the front of the line to the back . The length of the line remained consistent.

Walking back to the car, parked way down the side of the road from the library, after a total elapsed time of 1 hr 30 minutes, an elementary school bus passed us and the kids were shouting "O-ba-MA!  O-ba-MA!" from the open windows.

Most had debarked by the time I caught up with the bus but this young lady gave an extra shout out for my camera.

All told, every last person was patient, and committed to getting their vote in.  The poll workers were efficient and helpful, and I really couldn't have asked for a better experience.

We ran home, got the sunscreen on, and headed back out to the Bank Atlantic Center (only 15 minutes from home).  We were unable to obtain the guaranteed seating passes, so we resolved to wait in line, whatever it took, not knowing if we'd even get in.  The following are some pictures of the line of 22,000 people who attended (news reports say about 20,000 of us got in, 2000 didn't.  I felt very badly for those who did not. )

At about 3:30, we found our place in line, which by now stretched to the far corner of the arena-sized parking lot and was growing exponentially.  That is my sweetheart in my white Clinton/Gore t-shirt sitting on the curb.

The doors opened at 4:30, and by 5:15 we had moved a little bit (our corner is now behind us where the line curves in).  Cars continued to pour into the parking lot.

This guy was providing Obama rap reggae * and dancing for our entertainment

This jerk was flying noisily round and round above the parking lot -soooo aggravating - it would have been so peaceful without him (once the helicopters left).

A local artist contributed this:

This was a happy, hopeful, and handsome young man in line - his smile mesmerized me.

It's about 6:15 now, almost 3 hours into it.  We have come a loooong way; can you see the sea of heads behind us and from whence we too have travelled? 

We've now  heard that it will start around 7:45 and that it will go live on Obama's ad.  But will we get in?  We all know each other now and are HOPEFUL together. The guy in the riding leathers in front regaled us with hilarious and harrowing  stories of door-to-door canvassing, sometimes performed in his leathers.

It's almost 7 PM, it's dusk, and it is 3  1/2 later, as we approach the front door and look back one more time.  Jubilation reigns, we are going in!

The pictures from inside will not be visible here, so hopefully you caught those last three minutes of Barack's ad, or you can go view it

here

 It is a very strange feeling to enter an arena without assigned seating!  We'd been twice before though, and found seats straight back from the podium on the club level and we watched the remainder of the crowd filter in. I watched the cheering section behind the podium go through their coaching with the campaign staff, and wondered how they had the energy left to rise and wave and jump up and down on cue!  However, my flagging energy returned with a zeal once Joe Biden took the stage.  I do love Joe Biden! From there, I spent most of the next 45 minutes on my feet for both speeches.

It was an amazing and moving feeling to be there with all of those people.  The crowd ranged from toddlers to sextegenarians of every race and color.  So many had brought their kids for this historic moment, and they'll remember this for a lifetime.  The feeling of hope and excitement was palpable.  Obama is as impressive in person as you see on TV, if not better.  He can stop and quip and get a laugh or a cheer in the middle of his prepared speech, yet still arrive exactly where he wanted to be at 8:27 for those last 3 minutes.  I would have hated to miss it - it was so totally worth the wait (and the pain)!

We were home by 9:30, in time to see Obama do it all again in Orlando at 11PM with Bill Clinton.  The energy that must take - although, I'm sure he was able to draw quite a bit from the energy and love on display in that arena last night.

Five more little days - I have lots of hope now :-)

* UPDATE:

OK that was reggae not rap, and the guy - Prince Thompson -has a tiny bit of fame:

 From the New Times Broward/Palm Beach County News

"This isn’t the Prince’s debut in music; he sang a little song called “Kinky Reggae” with Bob Marley back in the day. Since then he’s played with some Whalers, Shaggy, and dozens of others he ticks off through his missing front teeth. But for the moment he’s exactly where he wants to be; sitting in his car, selling his CDs, and telling Fox News in this video clip, however kindly, to shove it. "