So to make a long story short Tristan invited me to go to NYC and the inauguration of Barack Obama and who I was I to pass up such a great opportunity. Our flight in to LaGuardia was 4 hours late and we had to catch our 2am bus from New York to Washington. We arrived in the capitol at 5am and soon after started our long march to the National Mall. It was a really surreal experience because there were a lot of people outside at such an early time. Not to mention the plethora of sirens and, police, military, blocking tons of streets. At one point we had to walk through a vehicle tunnel that was transformed into a pedestrian throughway.
We finally got the mall at 0730 and I heard someone say we were 3/4 of a mile from the capitol building. Well at this point we waited and waited and then waited some more for the ceremony to start. All told we were standing outside in below freezing weather for 7+ hours. It was incredibly cold outside and my shoulders were so tight from all the shivering. Eventually President Obama was sworn in (can't you see him standing there?), made a great speech, and the masses were free to disperse. Tristan and I decided to take refuge in the Smithsonian museum and actually stubbled upon a great civil rights photography show. There were some incredible photographs of Malcom X and Martin Luther King Jr.
After warming up for a bit we made it out to visit a few of the huge amount of monuments in Washington. The Jefferson memorial, Lincoln memorial, and the Vietnam Veteran's war memorial (below) were all very impressive. It makes me slightly envious as a Canadian, I wish we had that much national pride.
