Mary at the Inauguration

My sister managed to get a ticket for the Inauguration. She is very nicely letting me share the summary of her adventure and a couple of her pictures.

Hi All,

So, I survived! The inauguration was so much fun. It was cold, crowded, tiring, and frustrating, but it was so great! We - all six of us crammed into my tiny apartment - got up at 5 am and headed to the Metro at 6 am. The Metro was crowded but not too bad. We were able to get on the first train that came. We took it to a stop on the Red Line where the map said we could walk across Pennsylvania (which was closed for the parade) in order to get to our designated entrance to the Mall. After being told by two police officers the wrong way to go, we finally found out that we had to walk through the I-395 tunnel, which was closed to traffic, to the other side of the mall. We joined hundreds of people making their way through the tunnel around 7 am. We got to the other side and got the line for the Silver Gate, which was really just a mass of people. We could see the Capitol by then with all of the banners. We waited in this line for about 2 and a half hours until they opened up the Silver Standing Area. But we didn't really move anywhere. The police hadn't screened people for tickets so people without them had gotten in the line and were just standing up against the fence along the very small aisle they tried to funnel everyone through to get to security. People just started pushing to get the line moving and we finally burst out into the Mall where about 50 security guards were waiting to screen people. The screening was really fast because people couldn't get through the funnel very quickly. It wasn't too crowded on the Mall and we found a good spot by the Jumbotron to be able to see. I couldn't see too much detail without my binoculars or the big tv, but it was great. They had handed out flags to all the people on the Mall so we could see them waving behind us. People were crying and hugging and cheering.

Then, we had to get out... Even though the Administration had just been handed over and Bush wasn't in charge any more, they had no exit strategy. We were completely fenced in on the North and West sides and there was a tiny exit to the Southeast. So people pulled down the fence that separated us from the Native American Museum and we all poured out that way. Then we had to fight the crowd going West to get to 18th St., the first open road past the end of the parade at the White House. People were getting a little heated by this time, but there were no fights and they said no arrests in the whole ordeal. We walked back to Dupont Circle, which took about 2 hours with the crowds. We probably saw Ted Kennedy in his ambulance as 18th was the only route to the George Washington Hospital. People would hop into the wake of the ambulance and run behind it to get through the crowds faster. We stopped for hot cocoa and a rest (felt so good to sit down) on the way and then collapsed in my apartment. We ventured out later for the Rock the Vote concert at a nearby venue. We finally made it to bed at 2 am. What a day!


Mary with her golden ticket:
Our new President: