On the day of the inauguration I stayed at a friend's house on Capitol Hill, within walking distance of the Capitol where the inauguration takes place. I woke up at 5:00 a.m., dressed in many layers, and started the 2 mile walk to where I would watch the inauguration. The picture above is when I reached my destination to wait in line for my designated area. It was about 6:00 and already thousands of people were around waiting for the event that started at 2:00.
Once I finally got onto the mall around 8:00, there were already thousands of people there. I got a pretty good spot because I had a ticket, which got me closer, but still not that close. If you are familiar with the Capitol, I managed to stand right behind the steps by the small reflection pool in front of the Capitol. I read the next day that they estimated that there were about 1.8 million people standing on the mall that day.
This was my view... I couldn't really see what was going on, but luckily out of the picture on the left is a jumbotron and I was standing right next the giant PA speakers that were set up all over so I had a good idea of what was going on.
This is me after the ceremony was complete. Some people ventured out onto the frozen reflection pool to get a better look, but I wasn't quite so foolish.
After the ceremony was over, the Iowa delegation of Congressmen held a reception for all us Iowans in town. This is with my representative from Iowa's second district, Rep. Dave Loebsack. Rep. Loebsack is the one who got me the ticket to the inauguration, so I thought I should get a picture with him.After the reception I fought my way onto the Metro (subway) and headed back to my hotel. I got back in my room around 5:00 (exactly 12 hours after I had woken up). I was exhausted, but we had a new president, of course I went out to celebrate!
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