The inauguration

Tuesday morning, a bunch of us got up early to go down to watch the inauguration. Why be in DC and not go, right?

We made it to the Metro easy and while the cars were packed, they were still moving. The closer we crept towards the final station, the bigger a sense we were getting of the number of people we were dealing with. The metro station was getting overwhelmed, so they were only letting in one car at a time. Still, our car was moving and as the driver (is that what they're called?) said, "Don't worry. We'll get you there."


Once we exited the car, we saw the full impact of the inauguration on the Metro. It was wall to wall people without a single free square foot of space. They could only let a few people out at a time because of the bottleneck up at the mall. It took about an hour to get out of the Metro station.





Once we got out, there was a little bit of breathing room...just a little.









If you wanted to buy anything with Obama's name or face on it, there was definitely an easy opportunity to do so.











We planned to watch the inauguration at the Washington Monument. While we were walking there, there were some people wanting to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.









There were also some protesters with a bullhorn telling all of us that we are going to Hell.













Nothing got out of hand. Perhaps it was due to the security at the Mall. Even with protesters, the crowd was in a great mood. The weather was definitely cold and biting but with all the activities going on, I forgot about it.

Standing at the Washington Monument, I got a great view (in a way). Ahead of me was the Capitol, to the left was the White House, to the right was the Jefferson Memorial, and behind me was the Lincoln Memorial.






We were far enough from the Capitol that we couldn't really watch it directly. Every 100 yards or so, there were huge Jumbotrons that allowed us to watch and listen to the program. Colin Powell was the only Republican who received a cheer from the crowd around me. I think the biggest boos were for Dick Cheney. After the swearing in was official (or as official as it would get that day), we started to walk back to the house in order to get ready for the Inaugural Ball.