The 56th US Presidential Inauguration- 01.20.09
Wow. Well, today was quite a day. We are now in the era of President Barack Obama ~ and we’re quite anxious to see what happens in this first 100 days… Currently curled up in a hotel room watching CNN, getting a peek at the many balls taking place throughout DC and the country tonight… and i’m exhausted! I can’t even imagine how the Obamas must feel! Beyond the info you can get just about anywhere ~ on the next page you can get a peek at what our experience here was like today ~ from the 4am vendors setting up shop ~ to the humvee outside the window by 7am ~ to the masses of people traversing the city streets to and from the ceremony ~ to an inflated spiderman! One thing that definitely stands out today ~ i do not think i’ve ever been in a crowd of so many people in my life ~ and there was something incredibly moving about the energy of it ~ everyone so excited and literally from everywhere! Seeing them all come together, being in the midst of the cold for hours, and having millions sing taunting good-byes to Bush and come together with hopeful screams for what the future holds… it was quite an unforgettable day.
… and we’re headed back to LA tomorrow ~ so back to regular random postings in no time!
GeoEye has the awesomest satellite image of the inauguration today ~ and we’re in there somewhere! one of those millions of people… you truly have to download the high res image to see how cool it is!
Here’s where we were ~ one of those tiny dots down there ~ and there’s the white house!
The scene closer to the capitol…
So here’s how the day started ~ TONS of honking and sirens all night long like it has been all week ~ but when i peeked outside the window at 4am, i expected to see people stumbling home from parties and such… instead it was cops and taxis and vendors getting set up ~ already!
There were a lot of crazy feathered boas in red white an blue at my intersetion… and more terrrrrrrible obama/inauguration schwag than i’d ever imagined possible… winners like “the last calendar you will ever buy! 2000 years!” ~ it ran from 1900-2100…
By morning (around 7) i rolled over in bed and peeked out and saw the Humvee looking menacing… yet somehow taxis would STILL pull right up into it and try to go around… which never went well… there were hoards already making their way over…
The walk over (we headed over around 8:30 ~ and are only staying around a few blocks from the white house) took us about an hour… and once we got barely into the National Mall, looked back and took this picture…
Here’s a close up… it is a never ending sea of people… i’ve really never moved in a crowd of so many people in my life…
For a random view ~ i got distracted by the birds in the little bit of bubbling fountain in the Constitution Garden’s Lake that was mostly frozen over…
Worked our way back up the hill to Washington Monument (even short people can see the many jumbotrons from up there!)…
On unexpected things… here’s a random shot of spiderman…
While waiting for things to start up at 10 ~ some tried to sit down and spread out on blankets…
It was quite an insane amount of people out there!!!
… and here’s a peek of the view when Obama gave his speach!
….. ok adventures/vacation in DC for the week are coming to an end, and i’ll be back in LA tomorrow night! Thanks for bearing with me on this historic little side trip from the usual… it was truly a mindblowing experience to be in a place with SO many people, with such a hopeful, invigorating energy all around. People from so many parts of the country… and the world… coming together with such excitement, was truly moving. As for what happens next, and how government and politics plays out in the next 100 days… and 4 years… remains to be seen.
Things i’m loving so far… how fast they swapped the new white house site in! A definite improvement! Can’t wait to see how they keep it all up…
Whoa, I was virtually in the same place! Maybe you saw me, I had hot pink gloves on. :) Also I took a lot of similar photos, including the frozen lake. It was great to be in a spot where you can see the Capitol, White House, and Lincoln Memorial…(and Washington Monument of course) Shame all the souvenirs were so horrendously tacky!
----- Jess 22.01.09 14:07