Presidential Inauguration

As soon as Obama was re-elected for his second term as President I decided that I was definitely going to the Inauguration.  To be in Washington and not go would have been crazy.  Chris was not keen but I think he felt pressured into coming along with me and some of our friends!  We got up really early and took the metro downtown.

When we reached the mall the atmosphere was amazing.  There was music booming out of speakers and a line up of volunteers were cheering and high fiving us as we walked along.  That turned out to be the highlight of what was then a very long, slow and cold day!  

We were able to get a lot closer than we thought we would down the mall but we decided to stop where one of the roads crossed the grass because that meant we were right by the barrier and guaranteed no tall giants standing right in front of us.

Then we waited...and waited!!  It was really cold and we didn't want to drink anything because having to go to the toilet would have meant losing our place.  I had bought a few snacks with me but it turned out that I was the only one who had thought of that so everyone else was starving.  After standing in one place for 5 hours the ceremony finally got underway.  We couldn't actually make out anyone from where we were standing so we relied on the big screen near us to see what was going on.

When we got our first glimpse of Obama on the screen, the flag waving went totally crazy!

Kelly Clarkson sang 'My Country Tis of Thee' (which is the same tune as 'God save the Queen'!) then Beyonce sang the national anthem.  It came out in the media later that she had been miming, we couldn't notice that at all from where we were.

When it was finally all over we all walked to Bobby's Burger Palace to get one of their delicious January specials the Canadian Maple Bacon burger.  

I'm really glad that I did go even though it was a long day.  Chris didn't agree and would have rather spent his day off sitting at home on the sofa!