Hope Won!

Boy, were we lucky. We caught an early train today, about a half hour earlier than we were supposed to, but nobody checked the time on our tickets. Arrived at L'Enfant Station at 8:30, walked out into the street and saw the HUUUUUUUUGE mass of folks walking to the Mall. I mean, there were a LOT of folks. No way to get over to the mall from there... Security herded us from 7th down to 14th street, as the nearer part of the Mall was already filled up. We ended up just southeast of the Washington Monument, which was already totally filled up with people. We were just on the side of the Mall, but with a fairly good view of a Jumbotron and lots of loudspeakers made it very easy to hear. So here we were at 8:45am, 3 hours before the Inauguration was to start. The temperature was in the high twenties, but there was a wind, so the windchill was probably in the teens. Not something this California boy is used to. We were all huddled together with the other thousands of folks....if you don't do well in crowds, this would not have been for you.

Later, we learned that the whole Mall was closed at 9am, probably just five or ten minutes after we squeaked through the security barriers, so the folks that arrived just after us had had to go west of the monument, and those that arrived after THEM had to stay in the streets with no TVs and no sound. I don't know how many people were there, but it had to be 2 million or more. And EVERYONE was excited and happy.

The Inauguration finally started at 11:30, after several important folks were announced, congressmen, senators, vice presidents and presidents. Cheers for Colin Powell and Teddy Kennedy and Al Gore, polite stone faces for a few folks... like Senator Lieberman, in his little orange scarf. When Bush and Cheney were announced, there were some pronounced boos and a few folks mostly young guys started singing, "Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, good bye". Poor ol' Bush, you hafta feel kinda sorry for him (or not).

When President Elect Obama was announced, the crowd went absolutely nuts, waving their hands smiling at each other. Even so far away, we could see his beaming smile light up the Jumbotron. So there were some speeches, a great song by Aretha Franklin, the oath by the Vice President, and finally up came Obama, took the oath (which the Chief Justice flubbed up totally, what the heck was that about?) and Obama was our new President. Do I have to say how absolutely crazy the crowd of 2, 3 4, however many millions of people went? Flags waving everywhere, people crying, smiling, laughing, what an incredible scene.

At this point, we were so smushed together with the crowd that if you dropped something, no way you could pick it up. If your hands were up, like mine were to take pictures, you could barely put them down by your sides. But most everyone was polite and smiling and being nice to each other. President Obama gave his speech, then it was time to head back to the train, which would leave in an hour. It was surprisingly easy to get back to the station, only took us 1/2 hour to get there. Luckily, Veronique got tickets on this train instead of relying on the Metro, or we would still be in DC tonight.

But we arrived at Veronique's house, ate some hamburgers (no food all day, except a bagel) and watched the parade. Obama gave a shaka sign to the Punahou marching band, first President in history to give the shaka sign to anyone. Just seeing that First Family and those incredibly cute girls gave us goosebumps.

What a wonderful day it was. Amy, Veronique, Annecy, Camille and I witnessed History, a day that will be remembered not just as an American event, but as a World event. I am so happy to have been here. God Bless our new President and may we remember this day as the day that America started on the road to greatness again.