Inauguration ’09
On Tuesday 20 January, 2009, we attended the Inauguration of Barack Obama.
OH.MY.GOD!
It was a massive day – we were picked up from our hotel in New York at 2:30am, dumped at the airport at 4:00am, caught a plane to Washinton DC at 6:20am….
*taking a deep breath*
We arrived at Dulles airport at 7:20
It was at this point that I started to feel human and realised I had my camera with me.
Caught a bus to the Metro station at 9:15
Lined up for an hour to get a train ticket.
Travelled for 50 minutes in a packed train
Walked 1 mile from Foggy Bottom station
to the park right between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Memorial to where there were part of the 2 million strong contingent who had the same stupid idea we had.
I lined up for half an hour to use a porta-loo on the way there to find that there were a million of them with no lines at our destination. D’oh!
We found our spot, behind a tree that pretty much completely obstructed our view of the Jumbotron.
Our spot WAS, however, perfect from a crowd point of view and to be honest, I dont think there would have been anywhere on that day that wasn’t perfect. The crowd was amazing. I was feelin’ the love! See the woman on the left of the photo below? We were crying and hugging before the day was out.
Not even the Jebus Freaks could spoil the atmosphere!
First, Biden was sworn in…
We were all waiting and watching patiently..
Then Aretha sang…. what was up with that damned hat?
Finally, the time had come…. “Are you prepared to take the oath Senator?”
It was at about that time that I forgot I had a camera again, oops!
That afternoon we repeated the journey, in reverse, back to new York. We arrived at our hotel at around 9:30pm, exhausted and elated. It had been an amazing day.
Foggy Bottom station. Srsly?!
ROFLMAO! Srsly!
Foggy Bottom Station
That must have been so fantastic Kerri. I could almost feel the vibes as I read it and saw the pictures. Sounds like you are having one fantastic adventure. Adell
I’m so jealous of you and Brad !!! I did get up in the middle of the night (well about 3AM Sydney time) and watched most of it. I don’t know whether its significant or not, but the most important leader in the free world is now about my age.
So much of my life has been touched by american culture (I was born the same month Alan Shepard flew in Freedom 7), we both have young kids, &tc
Its funny thinking we have both been influenced by the same things (as opposed to the last two who were about 20 ys old