Monday, January 19, 2009

We’ve determined that while sleep would be great, it’s not really an option! We are just getting back to the hotel, it’s 11 pm and we will be getting up at 4 am to be at the capitol by 6:30. Today we had to pick up the inauguration tickets from Stark’s office. We got off the Metro train and saw nothing but thousands of people wrapped around the building for same purpose! The line was about a 3.5 hour line to get through the security and into the building. It was a bit crazy. My mom waited in line while the rest of us went and checked out the Library of Congress, the Capitol, and the Supreme Court. All of the buildings are closed, so we only made it to the outside, but it was still great. The Supreme Court never ceases to amaze me, it is so overwhelming. We spent about an hour walking around, and went back only to find my mom in almost the same place. We all sort of the just wondered about to keep ourselves warm and occupied as time went by. I think our cheeks were starting to freeze in place. The sun disappeared behind clouds and the temperature dropped a few more degrees as we waited, and waited. At first we were excited seeing people walking out of the building with their golden ticket, but than we got envious and by hour two were just plain bitter! J Finally, after about 2 ½ hours, a with another to go before making it in for our golden ticket, on a tip from a woman who had been in line with us, mom called upstairs and a staffer happily agreed to being the tickets right down to us!!!! While we wish we had figured to do this first, we were nevertheless quite happy to be on our way. You can check out Justin and Gregory’s reporting on the scene!
We headed to Arlington Cemetery to see the changing of the guards. Among the burial sites we saw were the Kennedys, Thurgood Marshall, a section dedicated to the Buffalo Soldiers, and a memorial to the Challenger space shuttle. It’s really quite hard to describe the feelings, but we all recommend that this is a place to experience.

We headed to the National Mall afterward to check on the scene and set-up for tomorrow. There were thousands of people milling about. As my mom described it “the spirit of the city is so joyous and infectious…it just carries you”. Everywhere we go, people are so ready to witness the swearing in of Obama each for our own reasons. I was sitting next to an older woman on the Metro who was smiling to herself. She got to talking and saying how she just had to find a way here, she is so happy to be able to witness this.

Well, we were hoping to get showered and in bed soon, but we just discovered (well Justin did) that the water has been shut off because there is a fire at a nearby restaurant. I have a feeling we may be up earlier than 4 to get ourselves together. It has been almost impossible to get calls and text messages near the capitol and even tonight we are having internet problems, but we hope to be able to post soon after Obama becomes our President.

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