The Inauguration

So, we've had a busy past few weeks, especially the last few days. In case the title to this post wasn't clear enough, Emily and I went to the Inauguration (I think this one is supposed to be capitalized).

As you can tell, it was a little bit nippy out there (and no, I'm not a Yankees fan). We went from our nice weather in Tucson to 20 degrees in DC. Luckily, there were quite a few people around us to lend their body heat, 1.8 million people, to be more accurate.
Despite people handing stickers that said "My name is... from..." we had a couple people to to keep us company. We stayed with Em's aunt, uncle, and cousins, and Em's mom came along too.

We didn't have tickets, so we were stuck with trying to get as close as possible. The different entrances were being closed off seemingly right before we got to them. Finally we made it to the 14th Street entrance. Trying to seize an opportunity we tried to get through the gate before it shut down. Jessie was first through, and then they stopped everyone. Luckily, we were able to convince the security people that Jessie would be too difficult to bring back through with her wheelchair. They agreed with us, and the Jessie Karma got us the last spots in that section. We were about halfway between the Washington Monument and the Capitol.

Of course when you have that many people together, you have to provide certain... facilities. In total, they had 7,000 porta-potties in place, so the lines weren't too bad. However, if you wanted to get food... fugetaboutit.

With all these shady people around the Obamas, there had to be sufficient security. Also, I couldn't help but feel that someone was watching me...

So, after waiting for two hours in the cold, somebody finally told Obama that we were there, and he decided to make an appearance. I guess it was some kind of big deal, as the crowd went nuts.
He gave a pretty damn good speech, and despite a little snafu with the oath, it all went pretty smoothly. There was some lady reading a poem at the end, but we were sick of standing out there, so everyone decided to leave.
Now, let me just try to explain that picture above. Due to security precautions, several of the official exits were closed. So the only way out was to walk out the back and go around the White House to avoid the parade route. Unfortunately, there were police barricades along the roads with only about 20 feet of space to walk between. Take that concept in a little bit. 1.8 million people, exiting through a single 20 foot space. "Chaos" is not anywhere close enough to describe trying to leave. Also, several of the barricades/walls had very narrow openings... too narrow for Jessie's chair. So, we had to lift her, chair and all, over the walls to get out. Thankfully, the spirit of the day helped us encounter plenty of helpers to get her out. It took a few hours, but we were able to make it home... completely exhausted.
We hung around the city the next day and decided to go check out the aftermath. It was crazy to see a barren place that had been ridiculously crowded less than 24 hours earlier.

While I was out exploring, I found this nice little old lady with a scarf around her head to take a picture with me. I couldn't help but think I knew her from somewhere. I'm not sure where Emily went during that time.

We were able to get significantly closer to the Capitol...
From there, we headed over to Union Station. There were quite a few people looking to make a profit on the historic occasion, and they all seemed to be congregated outside of the train station.
In all seriousness, it was an amazing trip. It's been a long time since that many people have come together to be patriotic and proud of our country. We'll remember that day for the rest of our lives, and I hope we can keep a fraction of that feeling through the next few years.