We arrived at the Springfield/Franconia Metro Station at 3:58 am. Metro opened at 4:00. We were shocked at the crowds already there! We hopped out of the car and left Carol to park it, and we ran across the street into the parking structure. The line already came out of Metro, across the sky bridge, around the second level and down and around the first level, where we were. At first we were just walking fast, but Rach realized that every minute hundreds more people were getting in line, so we started running! The line was a bummer, but exciting, too. Part of the excitement of Inauguration day! It turns out that it only took us 50 minutes to reach the front of the line and get on a train. Not bad.
Here's my picture that "proves" I was there. Ha ha. Carol is on my left, then me, Rachel, Wade (neighbor) and Danny (nephew). It was a great day to be an American, that's for sure!
Here is Senator/President Obama taking the Oath of Office. During the oath is he President or Senator? You can see how close we were. We didn't realize it at the time, but Senator Bennett had given us VIP tickets. We were front and center, as front as "regular" people could get. It was so exciting! We could see with our own eyes! We didn't even need binoculars. Unbelievable!
The crowds were amazing! It was a big part of the excitement. Supposedly there were about 2 million people there. Remember it is a mile from the Capitol to the Washington Monument, and then another mile from the Washington to the Lincoln. Probably 70% were black. They were so, so excited! They brought their children and their babies so they could always be told that they were there at this pivotal point in US history. Lots of women were dressed up in full-length fur coats and matching hats. They were crying and sharing stories about how they thought this would never happen in their life-times. It was a thrill!
We watched "Executive One" as it
rose up over the Capitol Building. It was pretty cool seeing it rise up over the top. I'll have to admit it was also awfully exciting to wave goodbye to President Bush, who you all probably already know wasn't a favorite of mine. It was also interesting to think about the fact that just an hour earlier the same helicopter would have been "Marine One," but now Bush was no longer president and so the name of the helicopter was "Executive One." Most of you know this, but "Marine One" helicopters always come in sets of 2--one "for real" that the president is in, and one that's a decoy.
3 comments:
I didn't know any of that stuff about the helicopters! Very interesting. I'm glad you had a good time, and I'm really sorry we didn't get to see you! Too bad! I didn't know that Carol went with you, either. I talked to her a handful of times right before the inauguration and she never mentioned it, that stinker! :)
How great that you were really that close. I just got your letter in the mail and am anxious to read in more detail. How exciting!
Cool!
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