Inauguration 2009

Luck was on my side to be a part of this amazing moment! A friend decided to throw caution to the wind and drive up. On Friday, I did the most spontaneous thing ever and decided to ride along. We had no tickets, but a place to stay at her mom's condo. Our plans were to go with the flow and just BE there. On Saturday another friend, whose friend works for Nancy Pelosi AND who already had tickets through this friend, called us and told us that she had tickets for us too. We were psyched, thrilled, overjoyed, etc. . . Her friend felt the tickets should go to people who were willing to drive all the way from TN when they didn’t have tickets to anything JUST to be a part of this event. We are so thankful to them! So thank you to Amanda for your willingness to just GO which inspired me so much to join you, to Lisa, Kelly and Hymay for sharing tickets with us, to Connie for giving us a WARM place to fall when we could stand no longer, to the Rayhabs for helping me with the boys so I could go, to Rachel for covering my class and Last, but certainly not least, to Steve for supporting me, so I could go at the last minute. It is a trip I will always remember!

So for the details & a few pictures of the trip . . .

• We left Nashville at 2pm CST and drove until 2am EST. The drive was good with the exception of the snow storm in VA. We weren't sure we'd make it but it stopped by Roanoke. We got a burst of excitement when some people we met at a gas station wanted to take a picture with Amanda's car which was painted "Signed, Sealed, Delivered, We're There"









• We spent Monday checking things out. Everyone was in such great spirits and so excited to be there. It was like a great big party just before it starts. Our tickets were south of the city so we had to go get them. When we got there we found out that they had gotten an EXTRA ticket for Connie, Amand's mom, so she could go too! Awesome! We went to bed at 9:30 b/c the next day was going to be long!





• We woke up at 2:45 EST to get ready to go down to the Capitol. We took a cab to the metro (getting there at 4:00) and rode down to our stop.

• We finally got to the holding gate to get into the festivities at about 5:00








• Temperatures were probably around 14 degrees, but there were so many people, and we had so much excitement that it didn't feel that bad . . . YET. We added the hand/foot warmers about 6:00 or so.



• We were able to enter at 8:30 for screening. This is the only place where we met someone who worried us. As we were entering the screening area (imagine airplane screening . . . the screeners were TSA) we had to show our tickets (the first of probably 20 times). A man was right in front of me with an arm load of camera equipment and bags (which were not allowed in our area . . . no bags over 8x6x4) When he couldn't show the blue ticket that was required for our area the security told him he had to leave. They got into an argument and the man FAKE FAINTED! Another man came from behind me and said "we have all these passes, we're allowed in" When the man from the ground thought they were getting somewhere with security, he started to get up. Then security told him that no he could not come in, he had the wrong passes and his passes allowed him into the mall area. The first man "fainted" again. Then a cop came over to us and told us that he'd already done this 2x. Amanda and I were stalled while this was going on and then they let us through then stopped everyone behind us until this was taken care of.



• We stood in our place in front of the capitol until the ceremonies began

Obama takes the Presidential Oath



• The ceremonies were amazing in and of themselves, but the people we were surrounded by were the best. In fact when people ask what my favorite part was . . . it's the people. There was so much hope, excitement and pure joy that it radiated from most everyone (there were only a few exceptions, which I attribute to their personal desire to be in the best spot to see that they forgot that there were 2mil others who wanted the best spot as well). The spirit there was amazing!


• We stayed until Pres. Bush was sent off by helecopter. We walked to a hamburger joint, which happened to be owned by the chef who won Top Chef (I had no clue and never watched the show, but it was cool anyway.)




Lisa, Amanda and me



• When walking back to the metro, we noticed the huge lines to get in and someone mentioned that the parade hadn't started so they closed all metros. In route to another station we just happened to see the beginning of the parade where Pres. Obama inspects the military as they marched by. Another great photo op!






• We finally made it to the next station and were absolutely freezing and exhausted by this point (about 4 in the evening). The metro was crowded and the little indoor mall area next to the metro was also crowded with people everywhere sitting on the floor and standing. Trash and food was all over the hallway floor. It was just depressing. We decided that since no matter what we did, we were going to be in a line, we'd go ahead and get in the line that took us home. The whole process only took about 20-30 min. Not bad for the crowd. All in all, people were considerate even if they wanted to get going.




• We got back to Connie's condo and collapsed. Amanda almost fell asleep in her chicken stew she was so exhausted. We were in bed by 9:30. We so wanted to go to a ball, but were thankful we didn't get tickets at that point . . . although we would have toughed it out if we had :)



• We left at 8 the next morning, getting home at 6 our time.

The whole trip was a whirlwind of activity, excitement and fun. I'd do it again I must say. It was amazing. A true moment in history!