The World Won't Wait: Obama's inauguration: DCCCC!!!

It started out as just an idea.. a dream.. wouldn't it be cool to go to DC for Obama's inauguration?! It seemed impossible at first, but we put our minds to it and we made it happen. And it was an amazing experience that I will never forget!
If you want to see more of my pictures from DC you can check out the full flickr set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emvee510/sets/72157612949624888/

Yay.. DC Metro! I love a city with good public transportation!

We had to wait for about 3 hours in the cold just to get into the building to pick up our tickets for the inauguration.

We were a little nervous because our 5 tickets to the inauguration were granted to residents of Iowa's 41st district. But only one of us was actually from Iowa. We weren't going to let that stop us even if it meant we had to devise some kind of elaborate scheme to get the tickets which is exactly what we did.

But we got inside, turned on the charm, and it was no problem. They even had hot coffee and cookies and gift bags for us.

Then the lady asked if we'd like to take some pictures in the Congressman's office, and were were like, *um... heck YEAH!*

The whole thing couldn't have worked out better.

And we were pretty pleased with ourselves.

Back to our cute little neighborhood for dinner and some fun.
Obama references were everywhere around town and you could totally feel the excitement in the air.

Larry wasn't feeling well so Kat bought her a framed picture of Obama hoping that would help.

And it did!

So for the rest of the trip the picture came out with us to all the bars and restaurants.

And he sort of became part of our group. (Good group, by the way!)

I'm pretty sure we made quite an impression at The Fab Lounge that night.

1/20/09!!!!!!!!!
We tried to wake up and get out the door as early as possible.

We got onto a train that was so packed full of people you could hardly breathe. And then when we got off we immediately lost the 2 Aussies and we didn't see them again until we got back to the apartment that night.
It took forever to get out of the metro but once we were above ground things moved right along. We sort of merged into the sliver ticket line (ie. did NOT walk 6 blocks back to the end) and made our way inside pretty quickly and easily.

We couldn't actually see the people up on the stage but we were right in front of one of the first jumbo screens, and considering that the crowd stretched all the way back to the Lincoln Memorial, we were practically VIP.

It was an overcast day, but the sun came out for Obama, no doubt.

Oh, and did I mention IT WAS COLD!

But we were pretty excited.

Everybody was excited!

And I thought his speech was really good.

Never in a million years would I have thought that I would be inspired by a politician. But when he speaks I nod my head in agreement.

The afterglow was real.

Once it was all over we weren't sure where to go. There were people everywhere. We just wanted hot food and drinks, just like every single other person there, I'm sure.

But every time we started walking we'd just run into a fence or a barricade.

We tried every direction to no avail and then we were finally told that until the Presidential motorcade came through they weren't going to take down any of the barricades. So we just had to go sort of give it up and with the flow.

After walking around in circles for a while we were finally able to walk the length of the National Mall, and turn up 18th Street and make our way up to Dupont Circle.

2 million people = lots o trash.
But with all those people there were zero arrests or incidents.
Pretty awesome!
By the time we got back to the apartment I think we'd been on our feet, out in the cold, for like 11 hours. But it was totally worth it.