Inauguration!

Since Jeff and I are lucky enough to live in downtown Washington, DC, we thought we'd take advantage of our location and see the presidential inauguration in person.

We sat warm in our apartment, watching CNN and doing work, until we saw the president get in his car to head to the capital. Then we headed out to join the millions of others at the mall.

It was a bit of a challenge to walk there - lots of streets were closed off. There were hardly any cars, but lots of people selling Obama-themed items. There were the things you'd expect - Obama T-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, and buttons. But then there were more unique items - Obama earrings (just his face), Obama book marks, and even Obama air fresheners (that was my favorite).



And of course, there were lots of people. First, lots of people trying to make their way to the National Mall.



Then there were lots and lots of people at the mall. We ended up near the Washington Monument, where we were able to watch President Obama get sworn in and make his inauguration speech. It was pretty amazing to see it happen among the millions of people gathered to watch.







It was a challenge to get back to our apartment - with millions of people leaving the mall at the same time, the steets were super-crowded. You could only shuffle slowly out in whichever direction the crowd decided to go. After about half a mile, it cleared up.



We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening warm in out apartment.