It’s another sunny, hot, holiday weekend — I love it! Here in Washington, DC, we have cool little addition to Memorial Day weekend: Rolling Thunder, a procession or demonstration of a quarter-million motorcyclists from the Pentagon into the city to raise awareness of Vietnam War-era MIAs and POWs. The city is filled with bikers for days before, and downtown you’ll come across large swathes of pavement and grassy triangles filled with neatly parked bikes. (More photos here.) It probably goes without saying that many of these bikers dress like … bikers. I would have loved to go around all day yesterday snapping pictures of my favorite outfits, but I had family visiting from out of town and that wasn’t possible. Instead, we were heading to the Newseum for a few hours. It is hard by the Canadian embassy, where I ran into a lovely Quebecoise named Carmel. I love how she was dressed for the occasion — she was participating in Rolling Thunder with her husband — but looked tidy and sharp. Turned out, our visit to the Newseum was appropriate for the day for two reasons. First was that the mission of the museum is to promote and expound on the notion of a free press, the cornerstone of a democracy. Isn’t protecting democracy the point of all the wars we’re in, anyway? (Or should be?) The other reason was that the view of Rolling Thunder was spectacular from the sixth floor of the Newseum! It was fun to return home and check the news to see that Sarah Palin had participated in Rolling Thunder this year, presumably in a run-up to an announcement of her 2012 presidential campaign. (As a personal style blogger who loves writing about political figures, I am super-excited for that. As a voter … not so much.) She definitely fit right in.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Before she leaves town, I hope she visited the Newseum, though.

[Editor’s note: An earlier version of this post contained less-than-flattering language applied to Sarah Palin. A reader complained and I’ve removed it. It was excessive. I will continue to write about politicians and their personal style, though, because I find it interesting and culturally significant.]