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Looked sincere to me. They might actually like each other. It's a pretty small club.I have to say the LOL moment of the day was W and Obama giving each other like a bro hug right before W got on the plane
I have to say the LOL moment of the day was W and Obama giving each other like a bro hug right before W got on the plane
Looked sincere to me. They might actually like each other. It's a pretty small club.I have to say the LOL moment of the day was W and Obama giving each other like a bro hug right before W got on the plane
Yeah that was LOLable. I coulda sworn I saw W give Obama a dap . . .I have to say the LOL moment of the day was W and Obama giving each other like a bro hug right before W got on the plane
So damn tired. Was absolutely amazing. Will post more later.
DLF, You helped keep me warm. Thanks. ;lol
Just want to point out that he's talking about cold weather gear and not me personally.
President Obama is showing what an Inaguaration Ball should be. Barack On!!
Quick Notes
-We were nearly as close as you could get without a ticket. Crowd size seemed extremely impressive from our vantage point but in that aspect it was imited
-emotions ran high in the crowd as expected. While the poem didn't kill the crowd since it was already breaking up after Obama's speech, it was awful and sure didn't keep it together.
-DC is ugly in the Winter. Sorry, but I figure most of the NE is really ugly during that time.
-Got a ton of pictures but will take time to review them and filter out the crap. Plus a lot is not inauguration stuff but just plain DC stuff.
-It was awesome. Awesome awesome awesome.
el
oh
el
DC isn't part of NE. It actually sits on a swamp
Suuuuuuuuuuuure.
So ended up sleeping about 2 hours or so that night. Got up at 3 and drove into the furthest subway station in MD. There were already lines for parking at 4am and there were a lot of people steaming into the station at that cold early hour. It was pretty cool to see.
On the train it grew more and more crowded until we got downtown but at no point was it oppressive by any means. There was plenty of space to stand when all the seats filled up and the stations were crowded but not overly so. There was a West African on our train who sang much of the trip in. It was pretty funny and pretty much reflected the overall mood.
The police force was rather impressive. They were out in huge force and supplemented by the national guard. We witnessed several convoys of Virginia and Maryland guard troops in Humvees setting up.
Got off the train just north of the White House and walked straight down to the Mall. The Washington Monument and Capitol building both looked pretty awesome in the dark. The set ups were incredibly elaborate for every facet of what was being done. There were huge jumbotrons at regular intervals all the way from the capitol building to the Lincoln Memorial. There were huge groups of porta potties set up along the mall as well and large scale tent cities for first aid, media, and vendor sales at regular intervals along the mall as well. There were a lot of vendors simply walking the streets of DC as well (I bought an Obama beanie for 5 bucks).
At the early hour the crowd seemed large, but from the ground it was always hard to get a feel for how large it actually was. Everything as far as getting into the mall and walking through it at that early hour (at this point about 5-6am) ran extremely smoothly and was extremely well orchastrated.
We walked arround just taking things in for awhile since we still had a long ass time to kill and standing still simply meant you got way too cold way too fast. We ended up speaking to a few people here and there and found the crowd a good mix of people who came in from out of town and locals.
Later we noticed that there was space in our section of the mall but there was obviously a crowd up torwards the front of the section behind us. They were staggering the amount of people into each section to keep everything flowing smoothly and they did an excellent job of this. This is why you see open spaces on the satellite photographs and then more groups as you move down the mall away from the capitol. We ended up getting as close as you could get without a ticket and our view as excellent since we could see both the capitol and a jumbo tron. The sound setup was nice, but for whatever reason it was never in sync with the video display and always suffered from a delay. The sound was always in perfect sync with what was going but the video seemed to suffer a 2-3 second delay. I figured this was simply due to the setup and it was nto a big deal as we went on.
Prior to the event (there was a lot of waiting here and much of the time prior to the actual ceremony starting was spent simply freezing your ass off and waiting) They replayed the concert from Sunday on the jumbotrons. There was a lot of sining along. When the actual ceremony started time started to go fast and the last hour of the ceremony really did feel like a snapshot in time.
Its hard for me to give you a detailed account of what happend at every turrn, because I got pretty caught up in the event. I know that the cheering was deafening at the moment of the swear in and the amount of flag waving at that point was always incredible. People threw confe i up and it was all out jubilation. Throughout the address several portions resonated with the crowd and drew more deafening cheering. It was simply an incredibly enthusiastic crowd and it was a great feeling to be a part of it. The air was cold and many people stood there for as long as 6 hours and were in incredible spirits through the entire event. There was a good deal of Bush bashing, but over that I felt a great deal of joy around based not on Bush at all but entirely on Obama. I think thats important to note.
When the address was overr, there seemed to be a long delay before they introduced the poem. The crowd began to look for ways out and when the poet was finally introduced no one really cared. They came for Obama and once he was done it seemed they were as well. I didn't really pay attention to the poem at that time (mercifully) nor the prayer which followed. I did listen to both later and I really enjoyed the prayer but god that poem was horrible and the recital was even worse.
As smooth as entry to the Mall was, our exit was nothing short of chaotic. The entrance involved a million plus people coming in at staggered intervals and the exit involved a million plus people leaving through limited open exits. Leaving the area aboard a metro was not going to be an easy feat so while we were hungry and cold we decided the best use of our time at that point was simply going to the monuments to kill time.
We went to all the major monuments near the mall and gave the situation more than four hours to clear up. As we made our way to a metro station at that point, we noticed it was still shut down and they were only letting in limited amounts of people at a time to avoid over crowding these underground stations. I have to tip my hat to the people running everything, because while there was a lot of waiting involved there was not a single arrest and I never felt I was in an unsafe situation. I think the crowds handled themselves incredibly well and the police, guard, and other organizations running everything did a fantastic job. It was simply unbelievable how efficiently everything seemed to run.
It was a pretty great experience for me. I knew going in the speech was going to have an incredibly tough time meeting expectations. You're always wanting that timeless line to come and I honestly can't say that I know whether there was one in this speech. I do know there were many lines that resonated strongly with me on a fundamental policy level and that made me quite happy.
Just a pretty awesome experience. I'm glad I went.
Oh - I have a lot of pictures to upload and I'll post them as well, but its going to take awhile.
i hope you have one of cheney.
Lines of cars waiting to get into the parking lot for the Metro station in Shady Grove at about 4am that morning. Pretty crazy amount of vehicles right at the start.
I have no idea how to use my camera at night so this picture kinda sucks. National Guard like this were all over the place downtown. This is maybe 2 blocks from the White House.
Washington Monument as we walked up to the Mall at 5am or so.
Walking up the Mall.
They had setups like this all up and down the mall - it was pretty awesome.
Manny,
Nice photos.
By the way, it was on TV for free and the weather in S.A. was very nice that day.
Best photo, IMO.
That's awesome Manny. Great experience I bet. Worth the trouble and then some
These were taken right after Obama was sworn in.
The all important MSNBC crew
And of course, goodbye President Bush.
a witness to an incredible piece of history.
congrats manny.
you guys took the redline into downtown, that is my commute to and from work everyday
Awesome
Where were the port-a-potties?
cool pics! didn't catch the inauguration...
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