Inauguration of President Obama January-20-2009 we began the day by heading to the vienna metro at 7am. after many delays we finally got off the train at 9am downtown. i was excited to get to my seat in the bleachers for the parade yet i worried about my friends josh and steve as they'd never been to dc before. in short order, i found out that i was not going to be allowed to get to my seat. the entire mall had been locked down already regardless of whether or not one had a ticket. in a strange twist, i was okay with this. and, as it turned out, i had a much better time staying with josh and steve than i ever would have shivering by myself waiting for the parade to start. we watched the swearing in ceremony on a jumbotron at the washinton monument. afterwards, i lead them on a tour (some might say it was a battan death march) of the monuments. we walked down to the lincoln, then the vietnam memorial. we then continued all the up to the air and space museum and then out the other side to the capitol. i assumed the parade was well under way by this time but ran into a guy with a press pass who let us know about senator kennedy and the parade delay. the three of us were now at the the top of the capitol looking up at the podium where the oaths were given just hours before. the parade began and we saw the police lead the way. we were exhausted (in total, we walked about 6.5 miles) but we had one more thing to see. the procession was well on its way down pennsylvania avenue when i spotted the presidential motorcade. i yelled "guys! c'mon!" and sprinted to the end of the street. josh and steve followed and we caught the shots that appear on page 3. josh has one that's better than all of mine. i'll post it when he gets it to me. in the end, it was a very cool day. i've never seen that many people in washington ever...and probably never will again.

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this is my photo record of inauguration day. We start with a pic of the line outside of the vienna metro station. the line actually moved rather quickly and i'd guess that 90% of the people already had their passes. time: 7am.   due to overcrowding at the stations, we got off at farragut after hearing that we could possibly be dumped at capitol south (hell and gone from where we needed to be). we walked down 18th street towards the mall and encountered....The Coffee Memorial!   chicken man...no clue what his agenda was   our first view of the sea of humanity. at this point we still didn't know that the entire mall was full.   another pic of the sea.   crazy chopper was flying closer to the washington monument than i'd ever seen. go capitol police!   the president elect arrives   according to the talk radio guys i listened to on the way home, this shows all of us pinko lib america haters.   the oath is taken   i took this for some of my friends

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