C & I in the crowds by the Washington Monument
Obama & Lionel Richie on the jumbo-tron
Today was, as you know inauguration day, and yesterday D (my brother) and K (his g-friend), along with C, were able to scrounge up tickets to stand in the Silver section – a mere 3-4 blocks from the Capitol.
Knowing that the crowds would be HUGE, I left our apartment with ticket in-hand at 7:20. I walked to the nearby metro station, went down the escalator and BAM…there was a HUGE crowd of people waiting to go down to the train platform. Because there were too many people on the train this early in the morning, they shut down all of the metro stations in Arlington. Good for the people way out in the ‘burbs, but lousy for me.
After failing to get on the metro, I went to the nearby bus stop. However, after 15 minutes of waiting and watching 4 full buses drive by, I decided I would walk to the capitol. After 5 miles of walking, a beautiful sunrise, an hour and a bazillion people later, I arrived at the silver zone (the standing section where my ticket was good for). Not surprisingly, the silver zone was more crowded than the full buses that passed me in arlington. Eventually, I settled in and found a great spot (see below) on the backside of the Capitol reflecting pond with which to view the inauguration.
Well after waiting a couple of hours, the inauguration began…and while I didn’t vote for Obama, it was well worth the walk and wait to be there. It was great to be in such a large, yet positive, crowd of people. I was joking with the guy next to me that I’ve never been in a big crowd where everyone was happy to be there – usually the only big crowds I’m in are at sporting events and typically half the people there are grouchy their team’s losing while the other half are intoxicated. Regardless, it was a great time. You can check out some of the photos below, or see them all here
M from his viewing spot | The view from my spot
Me, Ice skating on the frozen reflecting pond
