Archive: Around Town

Lansing couple Diane and Glenn Withiam attended the inauguration of President Barack Obama last Tuesday.  Braving the crowd and the weather, they went, camera in hand, to see Obama become  the 44th President for themselves.  Diane shared this picture journal with her family, and has generously shared it with us as well.

Catching the train.  We were up at 4:30 a.m. and to the train by 5:30.  We got on at New Carrollton, the terminus of the orange line, about 10 minutes from our friends in Bowie, and there was a mob.  We encountered a line probably 1/4 of a mile long.  But it moved along steadily and we were on the train on the way to DC soon.  Cold - I opened my hand warmers in this line.


Pre-dawn Capitol.  Trains were backed up, so we got off at Eastern Market stop, maybe 1.5 miles from the center of the mall, and started walking down Pennsylvania Avenue, eventually coming within sight of the Capitol.  Nice light at pre-dawn.  Crowds grew and we wandered the streets south of the mall, diverted away from the secure area seating, until we found our way into the mall right in the area of the Smithsonian metro stop (closed today).  No security on the mall - we traveled light but others carried chairs, backpacks, and all sorts of supplies.


Yes, we are there and I have my mouth open (as my kids say I have in every picture).  I rescued an American flag from the ground where someone had dropped it.  So we could cheer and wave with the rest of the crowd.  (And dance and sing...)  The jumbotrons began at 8 a.m. with a replay of the Sunday night concert, inspiring dancing, singing, and everything else.  My personal favorite - Pete Seeger singing "This Land is Your Land" and everyone in our area sang along.

 
Our view of the festivities.  We stuck to the side, in the allee, because we couldn't quite see ourselves gridlocked into the middle of the mall.  The photo makes the jumbotron seem farther away than it really was.  I thought at one point that it would be great to be farther east on the mall where we could be within sight of the Capitol.  Wrong.  With a crowd that size, we were lucky to be able to be within view of the huge screen.  But we could see and we were there and we were a part of the million witnesses.  And it was a wonderful place to be.  These witnesses agreed today that this is a moment in history of which we all need to take note.  One favorite conversation today occurred with an Australian.  She was here to celebrate.  We agreed that we can now again travel abroad and not pretend that we are Canadians.  We can today be proud.

A million people leave a lot of trash.  Well, Obama told us we all need to step up to the plate and take responsibility.  Whoops.  Maybe we can start to take responsibility tomorrow.

A million people take a long time to find their way out.  And then, how do you get a million people out of the city once you have gotten them in?  We tried to first go to the American History museum (with cafeteria) - too crowded.  And then to the National Art Gallery - street is blocked.  So we cut back across the mall, because to go north would be to get into the parade area which was closed before 9 a.m. because it reached capacity by then.  But you couldn't go toward the Capitol because that was still secured.  And a large area around the Capitol was staging area for the parade - no admission.  So we made our way by going with the flow of the crowds, frequently filling the streets.  We encountered numerous points where streets were blocked and metro stations were closed, but we gradually made our way back out to Pennsylvania Avenue and found a Salvadoran restaurant where we could sit and eat and get warm before getting the Metro back to the burbs.