Barack Obama Inauguration

What a week… My cousin (Steve Morris) and I went to Washington DC to experience the Barack Obama inauguration excitement. Steve works for Southwest airlines, so we were able to fly free. We caught a 6:00am flight out of Houston Hobby airport to Baltimore on 1/16/2009. Due to the number of stops the plane made, we did not arrive in Baltimore until around 3:00pm. After getting our rental car, we arrived in our Sheraton suite around 5:00pm, dropped off our luggage and immediately went into the City of DC. Did I mention that my cousin used his bonus points and we stayed in the hotel for 5 nights, free?

The next morning (1/17/2009) we went to Virginia to see the Pentagon and visit the Arlington Cemetery. It was pretty dead, but it was something to do.

On Sunday (1/18/2009), we drove to Philadelphia. I could not see being this close to the homeland of the Cheese Steak and not get one. It was a 2½ hour drive, but worth it. We visited the Liberty Bell, Betsy Ross’ House, Benjamin Franklin’s museum, Independence Hall and of course Geno’s Philly Cheese Steak restaurant. This just happened to be the day the Philadelphia Eagles were playing the Cardinals for the NFC championship. We watched the game in a Philly sports bar.

Monday (1/19/2009), we went into DC again. This time the visit was a dry-run on the Metro train system. We wanted to make sure we knew where to catch the train, which train to ride, where to transfer and where to get off. This dry-run proved to be very useful.

The BIG day was finally here. Tuesday (1/20/2009)!!! We woke up around 3:00am and left the hotel a little before 4:00am …and boy were we surprised with traffic and the size of the crowds. The traffic was so bad it took over an hour for a trip that was only 15 minutes a day earlier. We arrived at the DC mall around 7:00am. We did not have tickets for the sitting area, so we had to stand …and stand …and stand. There were approximately 8 jumbo-tron screens in the mall. We situated ourselves in the middle of the mall by the 3rd screen. It was very cold, somewhere between 15-28 degrees at various times in the day. The density of the crowd and the pure excitement kept us warm (…and a bunch of new warm pieces of clothing I bought days earlier to layer under my leather jacket) We met people from all over the USA (Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan) and all over the world (France, England, Australia, Jamaica). After about 3 hours of standing the ceremony started. When Obama was sworn in around 12:00’ish, the crowd went wild.

Although the conditions were rough at times, I am glad I was there and I’m glad I can share these pictures and memories with you.

For additional Washington DC pictures, go to: http://lojack-media-productions.smugmug.com/Travel/694319