Tuesday, January 20, 2009
9:11am. We are here! It is impossible to describe the mood and feeling here. Everyone chanting in the subways. Singing together in the crowd. It is incredible!
Jess is eating leftover kabob right now and it is grossing me out.
No guarantees about being able to post anymore due to spotty cell reception.
In case people are looking for us, we are close to the Washington Monument facing the capitol.
This is flippin sweet!
2:16pm. I feel like I'm in a disaster movie. Getting out of the National Mall was INSANE! We were in the biggest crush of people and took a half hour to go 30 feet.
Most streets are closed and are literally filled wall to wall with people. It is absolutely surreal to be walking on 4 lane road in a group of thousands of people and pass under an overpass with more people going a different way.
Jess and I ducked into a building to wait for a few hours. We are currently sitting in a hallway with about 50 other people with the same idea.
This is CRAZY! If I didn't know better I would think that some catastrophic event just occurred.
But, it is still fun. The stories we can now tell...
7:17pm. We finally made it back to Aunt Nancy's place. After moving maybe 300 yards in an hour while waiting in line at a particular station, we decided to hoof it an hour away to a different station. It was completely clear. Praise the Lord.
8:20pm. I would like to add that I am super glad that I can now drink water without wondering where I'm going to use the bathroom. There were a ton of port-a-potties at the mall but the cleanliness definitely left something to be desired. Let's just say it was a good thing we brought our own toilet paper with us. Oh yes, we did.
I will post stories in more detail once we are back home and I can use my laptop instead of my phone to type.
10:41pm. Went to bed an hour ago because we have to get up early for our flight but I can't get to sleep because I keep thinking about how great the day was.
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5 comments:
Good morning angie;
Scot and I got up early and switched on the tv and grabbed our computer to look at your blog. The sea of people is amazing. We did get a closeup of all the dignitaries coming in and some good close ups of the daughters and Michelle. The orchestra piece was wonderful. The weather looks very cold so I hope you dont freeze. We are watching for your faces :) May God Bless America Cheryl
I was thinking of you as I watched the inauguration with a crowd of coworkers in our meeting area. I'm not sure how much of it you were really able to see and hear, but it was pretty cool. (And surprising that Obama stumbled over the words of the oath of office. Poor guy. Speaking is usually his strong point. Well, thankfully, he gave a very good speech to make up for it :-)
Angie,
I watched a video stream on my computer here at the church. I looked but I didn't see you in those millions watching. So I made believe you were in the front row! How was it? I am so jealous. It must have been incredible. The word I heard most in crowd interviews was . . . overwhelmed!
Ben Erickson
Am looking forward to more pictures and commentary. I'm constitutionally averse to massive crowds, but a gathering of over one million people assembled in peaceful celebration must be an incomparable experience. I couldn't get a good live feed of the inauguration for my students, so we listened to it on the radio instead. As for the unexpected verbal stumble, I'd like to think that it was a sign that Obama -- er, make that President Obama now -- was as overwhelmed as anyone, and profoundly humbled as well. --Rick
P.S. Hope you two were warm enough! NPR's pre-inauguration coverage said there were hypothermia victims!
I watched the show with my whole class. Our entire district was watching it. I tried to describe to them the scale of the crowd since Bryan and I were there 2 years ago. They couldn't quite imagine it.
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