The Inauguration

Living in Dupont, and being excited about our new President, it was almost like we had no choice. We had to go to the inauguration - how could we not? With streets blocked off and traffic only coming into the city - not out of it - we knew we were in for something exciting. Matt woke up that morning at about 4 or 5 am. I think he was just too excited about it all, probably--that or for once I won the debate and he went to bed before midnight. Either way, we both ended up awake before 6 am! So we leisurely made lattes and looked out our windows to watch the people making their way downtown. We began seeing noticable traffic around 7 and so we started to get ready ourselves.





I was really nervous about being cold, but
apparently not nervous enough.
It got a lot colder the longer we stood in our same spot. I'm not really sure how long it took for us to walk to the Mall, but it didn't seem like very long because it was so fascinating and abnormal! We walked through near where I used to work in Farragut Square, and we saw an army tank amidst the masses of people and a noticable, rather eerie lack of cars. It was fun to walk in the street, but that tank made me feel like we were being evacuated or something!

I kept asking Matt to take more photos. The crowds were insane! So many people, everywhere. Everyone headed in the same direction. It was pretty neat to be a part of it, and so we arrived at our destination more easily and quickly than anticipated. We were in "our spot" by about 9 or 9:30 am. Matt got the perfect place. It was right behind a small chain with a large, heavy metal sign in front and a big cardboard trash can. We set them up just so, so that even if we had people cram in behind us, we would have some space in front of us. People were shoving by us and trying to get really good spots for about 2 hours after we had chosen our location. Our toes got so cold that we bobbed up and down to keep our feet warm. Correction: to try in vain to warm our feet up!














By about 10:30 I legitmately asked Matt "Okay. I'm done. Can we go now?" because I was so cold and hate crowds so much. Fortunately for me, he wasn't swayed by my weak argument. We stayed. Until the end of Obama's speech. It was great and really exciting to hear everyone around us uniting, happily cheering for him, and being proud to be American. We even made use of the 5,000+ porta-pottys, and there no issues - the lines weren't crazy and we saw no fights. Everyone was happy!

On the way out, we basically were cattle - everyone was shoulder to shoulder and just being shoved into open or advancing areas. Matt used his height to direct me, pulling on whichever shoulder to direct my next steps. It worked really well for us.... but by the end, when we saw legitimate space, I RAN.

We walked from the Mall to the Tombs in Georgetown and met up with Eve and Curtis. It was awesome. We got artichoke/crab dip, fish n' chips, chili, and Sam Adams' Winter Lager. All terrific and even more wonderful because we hadn't eaten since snacking at 7 am! It felt incredible to eat with some of my best friends, and watch the parade from the warmth of the Tombs. It was an exhausting, but exciting, uplifting, energizing, and wonderfully memorable event. Definitely worth the cold toes.