President Obama Visits Cannon Falls - Aug. 15, 2011

Nearly everyone in Cannon Falls has a story to tell about what they were doing the day President Obama came to visit! Chuck heard the radio announcement about the upcoming event while he was fishing during our vacation up north. He texted me with the breaking news, and my response was "Seriously?" I thought maybe he'd had a bit too much sun and he was hallucinating. President Obama? In Cannon Falls? How could that be? I immediately turned on our little TV in our cabin for the noon news, and sure enough, it was true. We got home on Saturday to a town that was really buzzing with excitement! We heard that about 500 tickets for the Town Meeting would be given out at 1:00 pm Sunday on a first-come, first-serve basis, with the line forming early Sunday morning. Jenna considered coming down to try to get tickets, but I checked out the line at 7:15 am and it was already really long. We later learned that those who got in line between 5:00 and 6:00 got tickets, and the rest went home empty-handed, after waiting 6-7 hours!

We went downtown Sunday afternoon to watch some of the preparations. As we sat in front of the winery, all of the local school buses came around the corner from the bus garage, heading towards Hannah's Bend Park. We couldn't figure out why they were going there, so we took a walk to investigate.


The buses were parked around the whole perimeter of the park as a shield against loonies who might try to do something crazy. Our school superintendent had to come up with 42 buses, and since our district only owns 17, she was recruiting buses from all of the surrounding school districts. We were able to walk throughout the park, and watch the set-up process.

These guys were working on the sound system.

Picnic tables were set up around the podium area.

The podium from the back.

The podium from the front. The river back-drop looked great in all the TV coverage!

And, of course, the satellites.

Beth, our supt. (in the aqua shirt), had a long list of jobs to do, and she was on a first-name basis with these Secret Service guys. They were dressed really casually on Sunday afternoon, but they got out the suits and sunglasses for Monday.

Monday morning dawned clear and beautiful. Jenna arrived at about 9:15 with Charlie, and we headed downtown to meet a few of my friends for coffee at the Old Market Deli. Jenna pulled in to a parking spot right in front of the deli, and we left the car there for the rest of the day as we took off walking and pushing the stroller. There were tons of people hanging out, just waiting for the arrival of the President of the United States! I really thought the cavalcade would come in from the north on old Hwy 52, so we headed north and found a small group of people waiting by the old Searle Grain buildings.

Most of the people were teachers and their kids, the true thinkers in town :-).

This Secret Service guy confirmed our idea that this was the chosen route.

We waited, and waited...

Charlie was very patient, and seemed to sense that something exciting was going to happen.

Here he comes!

Suddenly, a whole crew of State Patrol cars pulled up,

and there was the Presidential bus!

Next came this big red bus, and after that, there were about a dozen white media vans, several ambulances, and more patrol cars. What a parade! While they continued on to the park, we went to another coffee shop for lunch during the speech. After lunch, we walked back downtown, where the crowds were getting bigger.

Everyone thought President Obama would come downtown, and when the bomb-sniffing dogs started checking out the area by the Old Market Deli, we were pretty sure that was where he was going. We were on the opposite corner, and since we had the stroller, it was really hard to move through the crowds. We just stayed put and tried to take pictures from afar. The people who just happened to be in the deli were the lucky ones!

Again, Charlie was very patient!

Sure enough, the bus finally pulled in,

followed by the support staff in the vans.

The media left the vans and took off for the deli.

Cars and vans were parked strategically between the crowds and the deli. It was really hard to see what was going on, so I was unable to get pictures. However, I stole the rest of these pictures from the Facebook pages of some of my friends.

There's Jenna's car, right where we left it at 9:30, probably all sniffed out by those dogs!

And there's the President with Jenna's car! We didn't get to shake his hand, but he maybe touched the car as he passed by on his way into the deli!

He met with some local vets as he ate a turkey sandwich. Rumor has it that three Secret Service men watched the chef as he made that sandwich.

We've been at that same table many times when we've had coffee!

After lunch, President Obama met on the street with a group of people pulled from the crowd, but again we were way too far away. Oh well.

Bye! Thanks for visiting our town!

From here, he went to Zumbrota for pie, then to Chatfield to meet with a group of school children, and finally to Decorah, IA, for another town meeting in the evening. It was quite a day for our small town, and it was a day that will be talked about for many years to come.