Joining the Women's March in Oakland

Here's what the Oakland Police had to say about the March:

About 60,000 people in #Oakland. Ogawa Plaza near capacity. Pedestrians should consider using 14th and 20th to reach Broadway. Pedestrian and vehicle traffic heavy #womensmarchoakland Later they added: The large Women’s March in downtown Oakland has stepped off. Motorists are advised that traffic along & near the March route will be impacted as the group makes its way to Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. Map below shows the planned route. Five of us from the neighborhood (3 women, 2 other) joined the throng.  Started by driving to the Rockridge BART. Realized the size of the crowd immediately. All cars heading in the direction of the March were overfull. This is the scene at the Lake Merritt BART station. We were all trying to get out. We got to the starting point in plenty of time. Milled around until everyone seemed to be ready to set off. No way! The crowd simply exceeded the capacity of the streets. We couldn't march. I commented, "I've seen better organized riots." At least everyone was in a good mood. Here's a shot of the crowd: In 2 hours, we had moved from the start to the OMCA museum. If you check back on the map you'll see that we weren't very far along the route. Fortunately, we were able to pop into the museum for a quick potty stop, then we headed home. The crowd in the Lake Merritt BART was still immense. BART responded to the circumstances by putting on special trains that bracketed the Lake Merritt stop by two stops in each direction. That seemed to work well, but everything was still crowded. We went to eat at someplace in the Rockridge area. Almost everything was jammed. Finally settled on Jules Thin Crust, a great choice. Pink pussy hats were everywhere. Best Sign of the Day: "My Grandma already did this!" Glad we added our voice to the clamour.