I woke up at 5:00am this morning wide awake despite the fact that I may have slept only a few hours. There was a different feeling in the air this morning. Yes it was freezing, but everyone on the street was full of life - wishing eachother Good Morning and Enjoy your day and many were making friends with random strangers from all over the United States. Today it felt like everyone was in the same boat, ecstatic about what Barack Obama would soon have to say to the nation.
I made my way into the Ballston Metro by 5:30am and already the place was bustling and trains were passing by already packed. As I hopped on the metro to meet Scott and Jennifer in Crystal City, I found it impossible to keep a smile off my face. The energy around me was so overwhelmingly comforting.
I arrived at Crystal City Metro and bought the inaugural edition of the Washington Post and a Dunkin Donuts coffee while I people watched the hundreds of people bustling into the station. By now it was 6:30am. We had to wait for a few trains before one came that we could fit everyone: Scott, Jennifer, Sarah, Summer, Heidi, and me. Sarah, Summer, and Heidi flew in from San Diego to visit Jennifer and Scott - two PT friends of mine. Scott served on the APTA Student Assembly Nominating Committee the year before me and Jennifer is his fiancee - both PTs. When the doors opened at our destination stop, L'Enfant Plaza, we could barely squeeze onto the platform. For those of you from New Orleans, it was a crowd like Bourbon Street during Mardi Gras or New Year's Eve. The crowd is actually moving you - you don't have much control of where you're going. It must have taken at least an hour before we emerged from the Metro Station. All the while people were smashed in like sardines, without a care in the world, just excited to be a part of history. The crowd randomly chanted throughout the trip "O-ba-ma" and "Yes We Can".
As we emerged from the L'Enfant Metro Station, the cold slapped us in the face and began to freeze our toes. Volunteers lined the streets to direct traffic and welcome everyone to DC. Firetrucks, charter buses, and vendors lined the streets along the way to the mall. I was sure we were too late to make it, but at 8:25am we staked our spot on the mall right under the 3rd jumbotron from the Capitol. Sunday's concert was replaying on the jumbotrons and everyone in the crowd was singing along and dancing to Garth Brooks playing Shout/American Pie/We Shall be Free, Usher/Stevie Wonder/Shakira playing Higher Ground, U2 playing Pride in the Name of Love/City of Brilliant Lights, and Pete Seeger/Springsteen playing This Land is Your Land.
The procession of dignitaries started with Congress, then former Presidents, then current President/VP, President/VP families, then VP and finally the man of the hour Barack Obama. The crowd's roar was progressively heightened with each announcement, however it was silent other than a few tacky boos with the announcement of the Bush families. I was shocked and hurt by the vast number of people so disappointed with the Bushes. A crowd of 1.9 million is something to hear, but a silent crowd of 1.9 million is eerie. The crowd was electric when Obama stepped out onto the Capitol steps. The ceremony began with Dianne Feinstein. My favorite quote from her: "Future generations will mark this morning as the turning-point for real and necessary change in our nation. They will look back and remember that this is the moment when the dream that once echoed across history from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial finally reached the walls of the White House." Rick Warren delivered the invocation to a crowd with heads bowed, silently listening with the occasionl Mmmhmm and you're right and amens scatterd about the crowd. The invocation ended with the Our Father, amazing to hear so many reciting at the same time. Aretha Frankling sang My Country Tis of Thee beautifully. I watched as people in the crowd were drawn to tears. First Biden takes the oath, then Barack Hussein Obama stumbes through the oath with his hand placed on the same bible that Abraham Lincoln used during his inauguration. His wife Michelle and daughters Sasha and Malia beaming next to him. The crowd erupted in cheers, with cameras and flashes, hugs and kisses, tears and laughter. Then President Obama gave his inaugural address. As expected, it was a message of hope and change. He was eloquently spoken, ever so classily pointing out the fact that we have many challenges that we face at this point in time. "Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America: they will be met." After the speech we started on the heel-toe express back home. It took awhile to figure out our exit. As one guy said in the crowd, "Now I know what a red blood cell feels like," as we all tried to squeeze past eachother on the randomly blocked and barricaded streets. We walked from jumbotron 3 on the mall past the Washington Monument, past the WWII memorial, past the reflection pool, past the Lincoln memorial, over the Arlington Memorial Bridge, and to Crystal City. Yeah that's about 5 miles, but so much better than trying to cram back into the metro. It took, us about 2 hours to walk that far. I enjoyed the company today and am thankful that I had a group to share this piece of history. We at at McCormick and Schmick's and toasted to our 44th president. At 4:00pm I headed back to the Crystal City Metro and hopped back on the train home. The trains were still pretty packed along the way. On the train home I overheard a mom telling her son, "someday you will tell your kids that you walked from DC to Virginia after you witnessed history." At 5:00pm, I walked back in the door of my DC home, exhausted, but with no regrets. I'm so glad that I spent those 12 hours experiencing a piece of history, it was completely worth it and I'm looking forward to President Obama putting his plans in to action over the next 4 years.
Daly
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