Inauguration Day 2009 - Tuesday, January 20th

The big day is here! Angela and I both could barely sleep. We awoke a practically the break of dawn. We'd bought breakfast materials the night before, so Chris made scrambled eggs. A little something to put in our stomachs. We weren't sure how long it would take us to get out and when we could eat lunch. We bundled up in our layers and stuck our foot warmers on our feet. We didn't take any water or food, because we'd been told that security wouldn't allow bottles or backpacks. Little did we know that this was for people with tickets. We didn't have tickets. We're just part of the mass of people looking to be a part of history. :) Our inauguation adventure started about 8.30am in the morning.

This picture on the left of Angela and was taken from the roof of Chris' building.

We walked towards the 7th street entrance to the Mall, which was just a few blocks from the apartment. We hoped to get in line there, but when we got there the line was backed up multiple blocks and didn't seem to be moving. We quickly made the decision to go down a tunnel to the the opposite side of the Mall. Though the trip was a long one, it ended up that the fates were watching over us again. This 7th Street entrance was were all the ticket holders got stuck and didn't get in. This was the story that was all over the news.

The crowds at 8.30am....absolutely mind boggling. The picture to the right is of all the people in the tunnel walking basically under the Capital building. We walked through the tunnel and then tried to head back to the Mall. We were almost always in a massive crowd. We moved pretty well, but every once in a while we'd get caught in a bottle neck. It was tough to stay together. We grabbed each others coats and just hung on. We shuffled with the crowds through the bottle necks. We started to get a little apprehensive about an hour in, because it didn't seem like we could get close to the Mall. There were hordes of cheerful volunteers along the way directing us, but the kept saying "go another few blocks". We were told 10th Street, 12th Street, and then 14th Street. We'd try to cut over and get stopped by a barrier, police officer, or volunteer. We got into another one of those bottlenecks just passed the old Smithsonian building and just barely moved. I could just barely see over the crowd. Poor Ang had to depend on me for intel. :) We saw a break about 40 feet to our right. It looked like people we're streaming. It took us about 20 minutes to get to the break. What had happened is someone decided to pull aside a barrier arm and cut through a parking lot. This created the break. Apparently it wasn't an "official" entry point, but we walked across the parking lot with everyone else and there we were. Hooray! We walked onto the Mall 15-20 minutes after 10.00am.

We found a really nice spot about halfway between the Washington Monument and the Capital right in front of one of the Jumbotrons. It was crowded, but not so much that you couldn't work your way through the crowds. You could tell people had been there since very early. They'd brought all kinds of stuff and set-up spots like at a tailgate. We couldn't believe it! We could have brought coolers, chairs, blankets, backpacks, etc! I guess it makes sense. If they'd tried to run all the people without tickets through security gates, most would have never gotten here. Boy, I was thirsty though. I went for a walk looking for refreshments and to use the bathroom. I didn't have to wait at all for a bathroom. The word was that they had 1 bathroom for every 5000 people expected. The lines for refreshments were another thing. They were like 1-1 1/2 hour lines. I walked all the way up to the ticketed area to see how close I could get. We could have been closer, but the people around the Jumbotrons were more closely packed together than our spot. I worked my way back to Ang and Chris in our spot.

It was cold, but with all the people the wind was really cut down. Also, I don't know that I can truly describe the energy. It's cold. It's boring. There's not much to do but wait. But...every so often someone would break out in a song or a cheer. I've been in large crowds, but never in one that was so happy! The politicians and celebrities began to arrive after 11.00am. The Jumbotron kept us entertained. We watched the limos drive up Pennsylvania Ave and the anticipation began to build.

The roars started as people like Al Gore and Jimmy Carter came down to there seats. The energy continued to build as the Senators and then Michelle Obama and Laura Bush game out. The air became electric as Barack came up on the Jumbotron walking through the Capital. I've been in packed arenas and at concerts. Those places can get really loud. When he was announced it was loud, but different. It rolled like a huge wave back and forth. I'd wondered what it would be like to have 2 million people going crazy at once. It was like nothing I'd ever heard.

Diane Feinstein's speech was nice, but we were impatient. The invocation was nice, though really interesting when Paster Warren said Sasha and Malia's name. It made many of us jump. The songs cool, but I could feel everyone getting impatient. Then we go the the oath of office. We noticed the gaff by the Chief Justice, but just barely. Everyone was ready to come out of their skins by this time. When he finished, the rolling roar was deafening. Everyone was dancing, screaming, and crying. We were able to capture a shot right after. You can just see in our faces how everyone felt.

I said it for the first time that moment. I could not believe it as I was saying the words. President Barack Obama....President Barack Obama.....President Barack Obama. I just couldn't believe it. All that hard work. All the worrying primary through primary. All the energy. All the passion. All trying not to watch the news every night, but not being able to turn away. It was all worth it. It was all worth it. Wow! We did it. We all did it. All Americans. We're part of history. We're witnessing history. The first African American President. The first President of my generation. I'm still in shock. We did it. He really is President of the United States of America.

The inaugural speech I decided not to video or take pictures of. I wanted to listen to it. I'd listend to a lot of Obama's speeches. This was not one of his crowd inspiring, pump you up types of speeches. I've also read Washingon's and Lincoln's inaugural addresses and watched all or parts of FDR, JFK, Reagan, H.W. Bush, Clinton, and G.W. Bush. I believe that history will look back and say this was one of the greatest inaugural speeches ever. He told a story of where we came from and where we're going. He had some incredible lines that just range in my mind. I read the speech in the Washington Post the next day and his words in his voice just rang out at me again. At the end of the speech, both Angela and I were just stunned. We didn't cry, we actually paused before we started to cheer again. We were still playing the story of that speech in our heads. We were seeing into the future!

Right after the speech, we decided to get moving. We knew we didn't have a chance to get to the parade. There were only about 500,000 spots, and the word was the route was full. We walked to 7th Street to try and find an exit. Bad move. We had to reverse and head west. We figured we were going to have to walk around the White House to get around the parade. It was crazy. All those people moving at once. But...nobody could get irritated. Everytime somebody would get a little testy, someone else would laugh and get them to chill. We got caught in one bottleneck by the Washington Monument and came to a complete stop. People were trying to push through and some would start yelling at them, but the joyous energy would get everyone to relax. Ultimately, an Army LTC dressed in his blue uniform called over the National Guard soldiers tasked with keeping us off the street and making us go into bottlenecks and talked the squad leader into opening up another crossing. It made sense, and the guy probably figured why the heck not. We'd been hung up there for 30 minutes, but we finally go through. We headed by the White House and saw all the parade participants as they marched out to start the parade. That was the last picture I got of the day events.

We knew we were going to have to walk for awhile, so we just got after it. By this time, we were hungry and really thristy. I said I'd love to have pizza and a cold beer. Angela looked at me and said she thought that sounded really good. Two blocks later we passed an Italian restaurant that Chris knew. He said they had good pizza. What kind of karma is that? :) The restaurant was practically deserted when we got there. We were seated immediately. It was nice to take off my hat and coat. They served Peroni and Italian pizza. That cold beer and pizza tasted better than any I've ever had. LOL There's nothing like getting just what you crave when you're tired.

We finished lunch and headed back east towards the apartment. The parade hadn't started yet, but we'd gotten around it. It wasn't until we got back to the apartment and realized how far behind schedule they'd gotten due in part to Senator Kennedy's collapse. We stopped and bought some souveniers. We ended up back at the apartment around 4.00pm.