St. Paul Women's March 2017

My family is well populated with women - my wife and three daughters - so us male supporters and their children joined them for January Women's March in St. Paul, Minnesota.   I don't have much of a history as a protester and wasn't expecting much of a crowd so I was amazed at the size of the crowd, 100,000 or so, perhaps the biggest crowd I've ever been in.

We joined the crowd near the cathedral in what turned out to be a major feeder to the main crowd on the capitol lawn.

The participants were genteelly raucous, a few dancing and chanting.

There was a diversity of sign and issues.

We kept streaming down the hill.

Once we reached the main crowd in front of the capitol, we milled around looking for a place to watch the speakers.

Looking around, there was quite a diversity in people.

A view of the speakers wasn't so hot, roughly a football-field-distance away.

Families with kids were the norm.

I spent some time wandering around the hall - I couldn't hear the speeches much but the people watching was excellent.

There was a patriotic theme in the march.   One of the reasons I was surprised at the size of the crowd was weather, which was above freezing but spitting rain.

Young women were well represented, some with more edgy signs.

Puddle jumping, thanks to the melting snow, was one of the group activities.

As the crowd started breaking up, we walked up to University Avenue, hoping to hop on the light rail for the ride home, but instead ended up walking several miles back to our car.   The point that women are important and matters was well made, I thought.