larger view larger view larger view larger view larger view larger view

Hi Everyone,

Just posting some of my photos from the inauguration.  DC is incredible and it was hard to get a sense of exactly what was happening from the ground.  I'd made the joke about seeing the inauguration with 5 million of my closest friends, but you don't get a sense of what that means until you're in the middle of it.

The journey started about about 7:30 AM (late, I know) to get to our area to see the inauguration.  Even where we were staying 3 miles from the Capitol there was a steady trickle of people walking towards the Metro station or towards a taxi stand or to the Capitol in foot.  When we arrived at Union Station we had to walk around the Capitol to get to our gate.  We decided against making the transfer to another Metro line because we were afraid the platform would be too crowded.  Our jaunt up and over the hill got us to the right side where we tried to figure out where our line was.  We asked police and other officials and got in a line with a number of other people who had the same ticket as us.  Our "line" however was not so much of a line as a semi-organized horde about 50 people wide.  After an hour or so we had moved about 100 feet and came in view of the 12 metal detectors that had been assigned to our seating section.  After another hour and 100 feet, we again caught sight of our actual gate.  This is where the trouble began, or rather when we realized there was a real problem.  Where once there were barricades, the barricades were down.  Where there had been security, security had been pulled away.  Our line which had whittled down through a choke point to being 10 people wide was now just feeding into a large semi-circular mob of people all crowding around the next choke point.  1000s of people (some with tickets and some without) were all massing around the entry to our ticket section.  We still believed that somewhere ahead our patience and dutiful following of directions would be rewarded, but we were wrong.  Then the line collapsed...

As we stood there, the entire line pancaked and people flowed out in all directions moving in on the final chokepoint.  What had been a crowd flowing into a mob simply became a mob and then reports were coming back that 10 of the 12 metal detectors had been shut down.  We decided that we would make a break for the Mall or a coffee shop or some place to see the the inauguration on TV.  Our phones couldn't connect to the internet because of the million or so other friends of ours who were also trying to get news or video or something online and so we walked.

After heading down a block or so we came to First Street NW and moved closer to the mall.  At this point let me say that no matter where you went, there were hundreds or people in front of you and hundreds more behind.  We moved closer and closer and found ourselves in a ticketed area behind the Reflecting Pool where the gates had been trampled and security was absent.  Settling in in a spot where we could hear and occasionally see one the Jumbotrons, we stood and enjoyed watching not just the Inauguration, but the millions of people from across the country of all ages and colors and all walks of life who had come to witness this moment of history.

The crowd was amazing.  The sound of millions clapping and cheering; the feel of the earth literally shaking as millions of people stomped their feet when their hands were too frozen to clap; the echo of the speakers across the Mall and back: This was an amazing moment in history.  As I looked back across the Mall and saw hundreds of thousands of people waving the American Flag, I couldn't think of anyplace I'd rather be.

More photos at http://www.facebook.com/alb...