Thursday, January 22, 2009

I saw history in the making (well almost)


It might have been temporary insanity but Aubrie and I decided to go to DC for the Inauguration. We ended up driving to the Metro station which took about an hour even without heavy traffic. From there we took the subway train in to DC and it was packed full. I couldn't hold on to anything and people kept falling into one another. But eventually we got off and followed the crowd.
We walked about a mile to get in the general vicinity. So we followed the crowd some more and hopped a cement road block and a temporary fence to this area near the big screen. We inched our way through but that turned out to be a bad idea. People were packed in like a mosh pit and I couldn't see. We were being pushed from all angles and there was no where to go. People had climbed trees and port-a-potties just to get a better view.

We managed to be rolled along with the crowd out of there on to the street and eventually we made it to a less crowded area by the Washington Monument. I didn't get a good view of the Capitol but occasionally I saw the screen through the sea of humanity. The cool part was being a part of the crowd. People were booing Bush and Cheney and I felt like I was part of a lynch mob. When they announced President Obama everyone started screaming and chanting. I heard the speeches and the swearing in on the loud speakers. It was very exciting to be there at that moment and I could feel hope radiating from the masses.

Aubrie was pretty cold by this point since she is not used to a wind chill in the teens. I was a little amused by this since I kept thinking how it was so much warmer than I expected. So we started walking back to the Metro station. We didn't stay for the parade but that's okay. It was cool to be a part of history even if I couldn't see much.

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