This is dedicated to our Republican friends...

Hello all. I'm overdue for a posting and we had some excitement over the weekend:

You might have seen Barack Obama was in town. We got up early Sunday morning to attend his speech at the castle. It was a memorable event: Obama's first public international speech as president and the fist time either of us had seen a president live.

In the square, just after passing through security. Molls is holding a pass to the "VIP" section (which we are not normally, but on Sunday we asked the right questions and smiled...therefore temporarily becoming VIPs).

A photo of the stage. We were about 12 people back. Crazy close.

The crowd filling in behind us. We arrived around 7:30, this shot was taken at 8:30, and the speech started at 10. LOTS of standing around...

Snipers on our six.

They got the crowd all riled up with minature Czech & US flags before Obama came out.

Barack & Michelle arriving on stage.

Mr. President doing his thing.

We never thought we'd get this close to the stage.

I tried to shake his hand but had to settle for this closeup.

Took this shot as we were walking out. We don't see the stars and stripes too often in Prague. Notice more snipers on the balcony.

We miss you USA.

So Sunday was a unique experience. Of course it was cool to hear a president speak live. It was also really interesting to see how much effort it takes getting him from place to place, how many people travel with him, all the security, all the news media, etc. We've never seen that many people in suits.

If you're interested, last week there was a good article in the IHT about politics in the CR and anticipation surrounding Obama's visit. It well summarizes US sentiment here.

Cheers.