President Obama visited our neighborhood in downtown Austin earlier this evening. He was at the ACL-Moody Theatrer at the W Hotel for a Democratic fundraiser. I watched the exciting preparations all day, including tent raising, roof searching, security checking, helicopter hovering and dump truck maneuvering. (I added “movable blockades” to my Uses for Dump Trucks list.) 

Around 5 PM Bill and I went downstairs to get a closer look. Police officers and dump trucks were everywhere. From what we could tell, there were two major protests: students protesting immigration policies and wheelchairers promoting Medicaid reform. The students were louder because they had a microphone. (I added “bring portable sound system” to my Preparations for Protests list.)

We noticed some Austin officials were hovering near the corner of Lavaca and Third so we moved to hover there too. At 5:22 PM the crowd stirred and we caught a glimpse of vehicles entering the W hotel. Here is what we saw (if you look closely, you can see the top of a black SUV to the left of the dump truck):

After this exciting experience, we decided to go back upstairs to our apartment. Democrats started leaving the theater around 6:15 PM and Obama’s motorcade of about 20 vehicles left about 30 minutes later. (I added “2 ambulances” to my Vehicles for Motorcades list.)

Here is our upstairs view of Obama leaving the area: