AMAZING!

AMAZING! INCREDIBLE! OUTSTANDING! are just a few of the adjectives to describe this day. I have never felt so proud and so connected to the other people of the United States. Collectively, we did something extraordinary in electing Barack Obama and seeing the swearing in was truly an experience that I'll remember for the rest of my life!

Now to the day: The plan today was to leisurely get up, eat, and then make our way to the festivities. We did all those things, but when we turned on the TV and saw the thousands of people already there at 6:00, we went into high gear.

The Metro was filled to capacity when we boarded at the second stop. There were at least a half dozen more stops, but there was simply no room for anymore people. I felt bad for those folks waiting, but . . .

Anyway, when we arrived in DC, there were authorities directing traffic, but basically, we just followed the crowd. By the time we could see the Washington Monument, there were hundreds of thousands of people already in place. Our goal was to get as close to a jumbo-tron as possible. If you know the area, we were on the Atlantic side of World War II Memorial - a great location.

By the time we were in place for about an hour, we looked behind us, and there was a solid mass of people all the way to the Lincoln Memorial! It was a PHENOMENAL sight!

There were young folks, old folks, black folks, Asian folks, Hispanic folks, and everything in between - and the energy and the calm in the crowd was electric!

I had a MAGNIFICENT time! Thanks for sharing it with us.

This is Tiff and I just thought I would share a few thoughts myself. Faye described today perfectly- it was truly an amazing day. I will be forever grateful for this experience and thankful that her brother Forrest had the idea- while I did the lion share of the planning (booking the room and selecting dates to come) it was Faye who said her brother planned to be there. I of course took it at face value and began looking for hotel rooms a year ago (literally while Lance and I vacationed in Hawaii last January).
As you know Whit shared the experience with me and I talked to her this afternoon as she made her way to the airport and become emotional thinking about the folks that have come before us (especially our mother and grandmother) that I know for sure smiled down at the two of us sharing in this historic moment.
The energy in air and amazement of the moment made the 27 degree (although the wind chill was 0 degrees) all worth it!
Signing off from DC see you all soon.

Thanks for sharing and reading, the comments and the phone calls.