January 22: Back in NYC

January 21: A Return to Gettysburg

January 20: Getting Out

After the Inauguration swearing in ceremonies ended, we were part of the mass exodus from the mall. At times, we could move freely and a portion of the street that we were on wasn't so crowded. Here, I bought a button.




At other times, there was just a crush of people again and it was difficult to move anywhere or to know where to go. Our plan was to walk south, around the west end of the mall, and then north to hook up with the Metro's red line. We figured that if we went to Union Station straight away, we'd be stuck in line for who knows how long. After standing perfectly still for so long, we chose to walk. Along the way, somewhere between the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, we found a food vendor. We both ate Italian Sausages, which tasted fabulous since it was our first real meal of the day! After walking about another hour, we finally caught the Metro near the National Zoo. We had walked a long ways. We were exhausted, but there were no lines and our train was not even crowded. I slept for most of the train ride!

January 20: Inauguration

OK, so this post will be a little anticlimactic. Once we had our spot in the crowd, we basically didn't move more than 6" in any direction for nearly 3 hours. And we were crammed in, literally shoulder to shoulder and front to back. It turns out that that is actually pretty physically demanding to do. If you watched the inauguration at home, you obviously got a much better view of the real action on TV than we did. But, it was amazing to be there in person. What stands out most is the general feeling of good will. People were so happy. And that was a lot of people!! What is more, is that it was very remarkable to see so many people standing respectfully at attention. That was as powerful a statement as anything I've ever seen.

January 20: Silver Gate

Our tickets allowed us to enter the National Mall at one of four "Silver" gates, two on the north side and two on the south side of the mall. Since Union Station is north of the Mall, we tried to go to one of the north Silver Gates, but as we reached an enormous mass of people we were diverted. We got directions from a police officer and ended up moving with another huge group of people into a tunnel that we later realized led directly underneath the Mall. Turns out, the authorities wanted everyone to enter the Mall from the south...













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And then...

January 20: The Approach to DC

On Inauguration Day, the parking lot at the Shady Grove Metro station in Maryland opened at 3:30 AM and the first train departed for DC at 4 AM. Metro planned to run 17 consecutive hours of rush hour service that day and we had no idea what to expect when we arrived...

We got off the Metro at Union Station. When we made it above ground, the sun had not yet risen on the the Capitol.

January 19: The Tix

Janurary 19: Picking Up Our Tickets

Monday was the only day to pick up official Inauguration tickets in DC. All Congressman were given a designated number of tickets to give to constituents. We won our tickets in a lottery. As you can see, lots of other people were picking up tickets too!









We got to meet our Congressman, the honorable Peter DeFazio. He represents the 4th Congressional District and is Oregon's most senior member of Congress. He's also a super nice guy.

Janurary 19: Leaving NJ by Car

We left NJ at around 5am on January 19, 2009. The drive to Washington DC was just over 200 miles. In order to scout out our approach for Inauguration Day, we drove to Maryland to catch the Metro train. We parked at the Shady Grove stop, which is the furthest northwestern stop out of the District that you can get on Metro's Red line.

The Adventure Starts Tomorrow

We will begin our drive to Washington DC at 5am tomorrow morning. We are so happy to be converging on history! Yeah, us and about 3 million other people! Stories, pics and maybe some video evidence will be posted soon. Stay tuned.

Coming Soon!