Kennedy Adventure

Admittedly Scott and I are news/political junkies. So, naturally tonight when I got home from a Baptism at the church and saw the Kennedy's approaching Arlington Cemetery for the burial of Senator Ted Kennedy I said, "We should go!" And surprisingly Scott agreed. We got in the van, kids in their PJ's, and drove ten minutes to Arlington Cemetery. Why? Well, you probably guessed that I am not exactly a Kennedy fan. Well, with the exception of John Jr. anyway. I cried when his plane went down, simply because no one that beautiful should die so young. But I digress the truth is neither Scott nor I have ever really endorsed any of Senator Kennedy's political agendas, especially this Health Care fiasco. But, the Kennedy family is a part of American history and who knows maybe my kids will have to write a report on the man some day and they can tell their teachers that they were at Arlington when Ted was buried. We arrived to surprisingly few people and I jumped out of the van to go exploring. I wandered off alone into part of the Cemetery. I was a little nervous since the place was crawling with Secret Service, but I figured if I wasn't supposed to be there, some one would let me know fast. It was a dark night and a little scary since, no one else was around and I was in a cemetery after all. But, I kept wandering deeper into the cemetery hoping to get a glimpse of the family near the eternal flame of JFK. I almost jumped out of my skin when some creepy guy on a bike sneaked up behind me and said, "You're beautiful." I had to fight every emotion in my body not to run away as fast as I could but I somehow maintained my composure and walked really quickly to the safety of the crowds ditching creepy bike man. Meanwhile Scott and the boys held down the fort in the van on the side of the road.

I approached the news vans parked along the street and found a girl from CNN with a live feed of what was happening. She let me know when the family and President Obama were leaving the burial plot, not that I needed any help figuring that out because seconds before Obama's limousine aka "the beast" drove past at supersonic speed the secret service was screaming like mad for us to get out of the way.

Sorry, I know the pictures are bad. The president's cars were going so fast I wasn't able to get a good picture of "the beast" but this is one of the Secret Service SUV's bringing up the rear of Obama's motorcade. The news crew put a camera in my face as the Presidential fleet flew by and I think I was on CNN but I don't have any proof. Again not a big fan of Obama but it was still impressive being 2 feet away from his motorcade. Atley was over the moon to see "the beast." I went back to the van to stand with Scott and the boys while the Kennedy's left the cemetery. Most were in long black limousines escorted by the secret service and D.C. police officers. But, some of the children were in a big U.S. army bus.

When we assumed the last of the Kennedy funeral procession had passed we flipped the van around to head home. Little did we know the procession was not over and we were now smack dab in the middle of it. Right in front of us was what we assumed was the last of the Kennedy Funeral cars. Of course we thought it would continue to where ever it was going and we could continue home but it stopped along with the entire party directly in front of us, facing the Lincoln Memorial. And pulling up behind us was what appeared to be the rest of the Kennedy family. Yes, there we sat, a bright blue mini-van with a BYU Alumni license plate in the middle of the Kennedy Funeral procession.

We were a little mortified and a little scared. What to do next? Well, it didn't take long until the police directed us out of the funeral procession. We passed the Kennedy clan on the left and in my ever so reverent way, I hung out of the sun roof to flash a few more pictures. We are high class, let me tell ya! I learned one thing, pretending to be a democrat is really exhilarating!

You can actually identify the people in this picture if you click on it to enlarge. The dark-haired gentleman is William Kennedy Smith, he was the Kennedy accused of rape while with the Senator in Palm Beach. His mother the last surviving Kennedy-Jean Smith is directly behind him.