As recorded by Mary on January 22, 2009:
While my memory still holds the facts of an exciting trip to see Barack Obama’s inauguration, I have this report to write. Thanks for your interest in my trip and experiences. If you can make the sentence “I know someone who was there” work for you, please go ahead and use it!
On Saturday, January 17, I left Minneapolis, flying to Philadelphia with my friend Doug and his 16 year old daughter Luci. We met people on the plane who were also traveling to the inauguration; one of my seat mates was a young man from England who has lived in Boise, ID, for several years. He was excited to witness the event and no longer have to apologize to people in England for his decision to live in the U.S. We rented a car in Philadelphia and drove through parts of Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia to arrive at the home of Doug’s sister and brother-in-law, Janet and Jerry, in Alexandria VA. Having a place to stay made it possible for us to make this trip.
Janet gave us commemorative inauguration Metro cards and we used them on Sunday to go to the National Mall for the “We Are One” concert. It was a trial run for Inauguration Day for us and for the Metro system and all went well, at least in our view. One of the first things we noticed on the Mall was that it was lined with portable toilets on both sides, as far as the eye could see. We worked our way to stand somewhere between the Washington Monument and the Reflecting Pool. (They say the pool was frozen over but after my experience of my snowshoe going through the ice on Doug’s lake, I went nowhere near the pool!) The concert was performed at the Lincoln Memorial. I had a fairly good view of the JumboTrons (large video screens--a new word for us) especially if I stood in just the right spot and taller people didn’t move around too much. Denzel Washington was one of the first celebrities to appear on screen. He and Tom Hanks, Jack Black, Tiger Woods, Queen Latifah, and other famous people who don’t sing read the words of people from past history. Abraham Lincoln was quoted several times. The singers included Bruce Springsteen, Usher, Shakira, Mary J. Blige, Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé, Bono, Josh Groban--plus many others. Garth Brooks really got the crowd participating when he came out singing “American Pie.” Beyoncé ended the concert with “America the Beautiful.” On our walk back toward the Metro stop, we paid $5 to have our pictures taken with a cardboard Barack, with the Washington Memorial in the background.
On Monday, we returned to the District, feeling like old pros on the Metro. Luci was especially good at figuring out where we needed to be and where to get off. In our Metro car were three women who were selling Inauguration pins. They had them pinned all over their black coats. I bought one and then asked to take their picture. We saw many innovative ways to make money: hand warmers I bought in Minnesota for $1 were selling briskly at $5, Inauguration postcards with proceeds going to the American Cancer Society, Inauguration programs with Obama’s Victory Rally speech at Grant Park in Chicago in November. Our destination on Monday was Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office in the Hart Office Building. We stood in line for at least half an hour to go through security to get into the building. Many of the others in line were there to pick up Inauguration Day tickets. We felt fortunate knowing that we had tickets from Senator Nelson of Nebraska, through Jerry’s connections and efforts. Amy’s offices were packed and there was food with the theme of “Minnesota Morning.” We managed to find a few pieces of potica, cinnamon bread, and apple chunks, all of the food coming from Minnesota. We weren’t able to see our senator as she was taking a break from talking to people and having her picture taken with them.
We stopped at the National Gallery of Art and walked through the Modern Art wing, had lunch at the cafe where we could sit down, and then returned to Alexandria and our Metro stop at Pentagon City where the car was parked.
Jerry and Janet spent the evening and night in the District so we were on our own and in charge of feeding their cats. Jerry’s sister Elaine arrived from San Francisco and we shared a delivered pizza with her. Elaine came to be a hostess at an Inaugural Ball at the Corcoran Gallery on Tuesday night. She showed us her ball gown and the vintage mink jacket she borrowed from a friend. We had a great time with her. After raiding our absent hosts’ wine cellar, we may not get invited back!
We woke up at 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Inauguration Day, and dressed in our warmest Minnesota clothes. I had wool underwear, lined wool pants, a Cuddle Duds underwear top, cashmere sweater, boiled wool jacket, wool scarf, SmartWool socks, Merrell shoes, and a winter coat into which I sewed extra pockets to carry mittens, a hat, binoculars, hand warmers, toilet paper etc. We took the Dash bus to the Metro station at Braddock Road and managed to squeeze into a blue line Metro car. We immediately lost all our personal space and it proceeded to get even more packed. A person in a wheelchair was in the car so it was impossible to move much. A ride that would have taken 20 minutes took 1-1/2 hours. The Metro conductor was on the microphone often to announce delays due to other trains being slow, sick passengers, closed Metro stops, and other problems. He seemed to appreciate that he had a truly captive audience so he reminded us that it was a celebration. We figured out that in the 8 cars of that Metro train was the equivalent of the entire population of Aurora.
The train emptied out at Federal Center and then we got into a massive crowd streaming toward the Blue Gate and the area where our tickets would allow us to stand for the Inauguration ceremony. There was movement in the line, but many, many people in front of us. Heard in line: the Texas Ball the night before had 11,000 attendees and one of the bands was the Amish Outlaws, former Amish men who still dressed like the Amish. About 15 minutes before the ceremony was to begin, we learned that we would not be able to get through security and the line was closed due to the area being filled. We actually heard many other stories about why we couldn’t use our tickets and stand in that area. You may have heard and read about the problems and delays that many ticket holders experienced.
Our solution was to go to the Rayburn Office Building for a reception sponsored by the Minnesota legislators. We raced to the building and stood in a short line for security. We managed to get to the reception room in time for Joe Biden’s oath and the remainder of the ceremony. So, leaning against the back wall of the committee room for Transportation and Infrastructure (MN representative Jim Oberstar’s committee) we watched the inauguration on CNN. On the up side, we were glad to be with a group of fellow Minnesotans and, as the crow flies, we were closer to the Inaugural platform (just across the street from the Rayburn Building) than we would have been with our Blue area tickets, there was free food, and accessible restrooms with toilet paper. Al Franken, Minnesota’s newest senator, we think, came to the reception so I got a picture of him with Doug and Luci.
We didn’t plan to stay in the District to watch the parade, so we started our walk back to the Metro stop at Federal Center. We saw that the line to the escalator down to the platform was several blocks long, so we chose to walk to Union Station to take the Metro from there. Along the way we watched the Army marching band and military marching groups form for the start of the parade. The Fife and Drum Corps in their George Washington style uniforms was very impressive. Luci noticed that the men wore hairnets over their gray wigs!
By the time we got to Union Station some of the crowds had decreased and we were able to get on the Metro and sit on seats. We saw Elaine all dressed up to leave for the Inaugural Ball and we put on our Obama t-shirts for Janet to take our picture. To make it easier to get back to the Philadelphia airport, we left Alexandria on Tuesday evening and drove to Delaware, stayed overnight with Howard Johnson, and then drove to the airport on Wednesday morning. We didn’t have any airport delays but did have to run in the Atlanta airport to catch our Minneapolis flight. On the way home, we stopped for dinner in Forest Lake and had our photos developed at Walgreens while we ate. I arrived back home in Aurora shortly after 10 p.m.
In a column in the WASHINGTON POST on January 19, Marc Fisher debates the advantages of staying home in front of the television to watch the Inauguration and of going there to be in attendance. He wrote, “ But if you go, you will absorb into the marrow of your soul the multitude paying tribute to the personification of the nation...The Brits have their coronations, we have this curious business of electing not only our head of government but also our head of state, then crowning him not in a palace but out on the street, before anyone and everyone...So you get this immense solemnity and the joy of the circus...this remarkably American blend of hallowed moment and laughter and gaiety. Hear the bands, smell the horses, stare at the faces, eavesdrop like there’s no tomorrow. History is happening. And however far back in the crowd you may be, you are living it, but only if you go.”
I bore witness to this exciting moment in history.
