Inauguration
Inauguration weekend in DC was a crowded zoo full of exotic tourist species from around the USA and the world as it turns out. My first taste of the crowds on the National Mall was bearable for Sunday's concert (only broadcast on HBO). Walking home I realized that everyone was covered in dirt from the trampled lawn. I wonder how long it'll be until they just lay down field turf.
Luckily, I scored a silver ticket through a former HMB member, and Tom got one last minute as well. We set off early and attempted to take Metro but bailed after spending 15 minutes to travel one stop. 4.5 miles later we had arrived at the biggest line debacle ever witnessed by mankind - except for those peeps in the Purple Tunnel of Doom.
A crowd of 1.5 million people stood silent as Barak Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. That feeling was worth all the cold and crowds and anxiety about getting there on time, and a stark contrast to the crowd's mood the rest of the time. Apparently we stood in the snarky section because every time Cheney was shown someone nasty was shouted. Darth Cheney... Sith Lord... Dr. Evil... And when they showed George W. Bush each time the crowd sung, "Na, na, na, na... hey hey hey... goodbye!" That was pretty much super-awesome!
Also, in case you don't subscribe to the RSS feed: Blowoff Photos from the weekend!