It’s Nacho Time

As the sun rose on the National Mall, I could already tell that it was packed. Since much earlier that morning people were standing shoulder to shoulder around us. I felt a little guilty that we had enough room to stretch out. The sleeping bag kept me from most of the cold, but that morning as it got lighter, it seemed to get even colder. I’m not sure what time it was when they started replaying the Inaugural concert on the Jumbotrons, but whet “Shout” came on, I decided it was time to stand up before I got trampled. THEN I started to really feel the cold that everyone had been experiencing for the past several hours (since Inauguration, I have gone through a box of Kleenex and at least three travel packs). It was so cold that my water bottle was freezing up:

My Inauguration Day Wardrobe:

• 2 pairs of Smartwool Socks (Andrenaline Lt and Streethikers)
• flannel pijama pants
• jeans
• Smartwool “Next to Skin” wool top
• American Apparel thermal long sleeved shirt
• REI Staff Vest
• EMS Down Jacket
• EMS Skullcap
• wool hat with earflaps
• Merrell Chameleon Hex light hiking shoes
• Fox River Gripper Gloves

Everyone was bundled up.

Finally, it was time for the main event:

I really did almost cry during the speech. The only thing wrong is that I didn’t have my own little flag to wave around like a maniac!

Then, it was all over. This is where it really started to get crazy. The police decided it would be a great idea to open up only a couple of exits for a couple million people on the Mall. We decided to try our luck at L’Enfant Plaza metro station. This was a mistake. We found ourselves in the middle of TONS of people all heading back to their tour buses. Along the way we lost the shortest member of our group. At this point, I got on a friend’s shoulders and we waded through the crowd shouting her name. Besides the fact that we lost someone, it was tons of fun, and the crowd seemed very amused as well. The good news is that she made it back home, but we lost about an hour in that crowd without getting anywhere.

We circled around the west side of the Mall towards Foggy Bottom/GWU metro station, but it was pretty clear that we would never get on a train over there. While G didn’t get on a train, I at least took a pretty cool picture while we were in the neighborhood.

We eventually made our way to Dupont Circle which was much more manageable. After a few hours of trying, our group made it home, and I went right to sleep.

All in all, it was worth it. My sleep schedule’s back on track, my cold is almost gone, and I can say that I was there.

- Tim

(for more pictures, be sure to check out my Flickr set)