Estimates of the number of people attending Barack Obama's inauguration on Tues vary anywhere from 1 million to 3 million. Every one of those people came, despite the forewarnings, despite the weather, despite realities of the insanely large number of people attending. Everyone of those people has a story to tell - some good, some not so good... You read one story yesterday on this blog; today is another.

Monday:
We arrived in DC Monday afternoon, 3-ish, and went straight to the hotel to check-in, the thought being we wanted to ensure we got our room in case there were any problems. That was prescient, as the discounter site through which we made the booking had oversold the rooms. Fortunately there were cancellations (Republicans, no doubt), so we managed to get the room we wanted, dropped our stuff, changed our clothes, and headed to the train station.

We had booked a room in Vienna (which is at the end of the Metro line) thinking we would be able to get on the train the next day without difficulty. Apparently great minds think alike and there were many great minds in DC that day, because the line just to get tickets for the train stretched completely out of the station. It moved slowly, and took us over an hour just to get tickets for the the train that evening (we bought tickets for Tuesday as well).

The ride into town was relatively quick, but the ticket line had scuttled our plans to meet up with Familia de TriSec for dinner, so we decided to go to our favorite pub in DC for cocktails and dinner. There was a jubilant air in the place as we talked to various people who had come into town for the occasion.

Afterwards, we decided to stalk the SMS crew and headed up to Dupont Circle. We couldn't find any of them, or even a decent bar, so we set out in the frigid night air in search of alcohol and a good time. We happened upon the infamous Mayflower hotel and - after some encouragement from a patron outside (she said Bo Biden was inside) - ventured in.

The place was abuzz in drunken reverie, celebrating the impending departure of a wounded duck. MSNBC was on a big screen TV and the partiers cheered Rachel when her show came on. We met people from all over the country, including a Buckhead Betty, a lobbyist from Memphis (for the distilled spirits industry) and various others. They were doing a countdown every hour with a state "representative" giving a toast. When it was discovered that we were Georgians, we were enlisted for the 11:00 PM toast.

I suggested that Raine perform the toast since her voice is louder than mine ( ). After some panicked back and forth over what the toast should be, I suggested "Georgia - our state is red, but our hearts are blue". With that settled, Raine did the toast:



With Georgia's reputation solidly reinforced, we returned to Vienna, the hotel, and retired for the evening.

Tuesday:
Knowing we were to meet Mala and TriSec in the midst of chaos, we awoke WAY too early, showered dressed, and walked down to the train station at 7:00 AM...

... to find the line to get on the train stretching out of the station, through the parking lot, and down the street. Nervously, we got in line, but were relieved to see it moving rather quickly. We got on the train about 8:00. Seeing as how the train was fairly packed leaving the station at the end of the line, we were happy that we hadn't booked a hotel further in. At each station we saw people waiting, heard the conductor say "this train is at capacity. Please wait for the next train". There were apparently problems in the city getting people out of the trains and out of the station, because the train kept stopping on the tracks.

We finally arrived at our destination at about 8:45, at nearly the same time as the TriSecs. Mala had gotten there much earlier and was patiently waiting. The crowds were staggering, and there were crowd control and directional fences everywhere. The air was bitter cold and the wind cut to the bone as we followed the massive crowd filling the streets. As TriSec reported yesterday, we looked for a way onto the Mall, but the Mall was full. We ended up breaching a security perimeter and finding a place with a wonderful view of the area, but sadly, no view of the few jumbotrons set up on the opposite side.

Still, the view of the sea of humanity was breathtaking:


Faces of every color obscured every bit of green. It was a bigger crowd than you'd see at a rock concert, but this was a presidential inauguration! There was a palpable sense of expectation, mixed with joy and relief. Everyone was patient as the event unfolded; as the former presidents were introduced, there was applause and booing... cheers for Carter, boos for Bush The First, bigger cheers for Clinton, and a deafening chorus of boos for Bush the Second:

which transitioned into choruses of "na na na na... na na na na... hey hey... goodbye". It was the catharsis of a nation. It was the battered wife kicking the husband out the door for the last time. It was amazing.

But yet - still not as amazing as the cheers and applause as Obama was declared president. There were tears and hugs everywhere in the crowd. I pulled out my dual flask and we all took celebratory shots of scotch and whiskey, warming our bellies as Obama's inaugural address warmed our hearts. TriSec had brought cigars but at that point we were too cold and too crowded in to deal with them.

As everyone began leaving, it immediately became apparent that planning for the crowds ended with getting the crowds in to the Mall. The barricades became a prison as people began pushing to get out, and there were few exits, and we were nervous that we'd get crushed. Hundreds of thousands of cold people were streaming into the streets wherever they could, but there was nowhere to go, nowhere to get warm. Buildings, restaurants and foodcarts were quickly overwhelmed. It's astounding that there were no deaths and no arrests; it's a testament to the unity of the people attending.

We finally were able to get into a warm building where we could defrost and sit down (I had been standing nearly non-stop for 8 hours by that point). We munched trail mix and sipped water and regrouped. With young Javi fading fast, Mala's train due in an hour, and no chance of finding a place to sit and eat, we decided to forgo a group lunch and ended up going our separate ways.

We ended up heading back to our favorite watering hole, where we managed some bread and hot soup, cocktails and more conversation. Along the way we passed booth after booth of souvenir stands selling Everything Obama (from nice to the incredibly tacky and cheaply made). We picked some stuff up for ourselves, friends and family.

By 8:00 PM, we were exhausted, and the bar was closing down early (they were running out of food) so we plodded down to the metro station for a quiet ride (sitting down this time, thankfully) and a taxi from the station back to the hotel. We crashed hard and headed out the next morning.

In retrospect, we were luckier than a lot of people, partly due to good planning and partly due to just dumb luck. I wouldn't have done anything differently and - despite the cold, the pressing crowds, and the non-stop walking and standing - I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat. The pain subsides, but the memories live forever, and I will always remember standing on the Mall in DC on Jan 20th, 2009 with my wife Raine, and my friends TriSec, Mala, Maria, and Javi and 2 million others listening to Barack Obama become our 44th president.