Welcome to Washington, President Obama!

What a day! Unless you live under a rock, you've probably had your fill of Inauguration Day news. All eyes have been on Washington, my hometown (term used loosely), the last few days. I have to admit that I was undecided about making the journey into the city to be a part of everything in person. The excitement built, my parents are visiting, we decided to go. I had 4 layers of shirts, 3 layers on the bottom, 2 layers on the feet, plus a long heavy jacket, warm boots, 2 scarves, 2 pair of gloves, 2 hats and a partridge in a pear tree.

I know, I know....I didn't feel pretty either.

We had an early and rough start to the day. I live just close enough that officials recommended walking in to downtown, but just far enough to make it a loooooong walk. So we decided to take our chances on the closest metro station to get us closer. That was mistake #1. So many people, trains packed like sardines, and technical difficulties.

On to Plan B.

We started walking in hopes of finding a cab to get us as close to Memorial Bridge as possible. Have I ever mentioned how useless cabbies are and how much I hate them? Well, I do. Mr. Cab Driver #1 told us he couldn't go on any of the necessary roads. This later turned out to be totally false.

On to Plan C (a hail Mary if you will)....walk. Policeman #1 told us we could proceed on road. So we walk. Policeman #2 tells us we can't proceed on road. We almost give up. (The temperature was around 20 degrees and the wind chill was lower than that. Oh, and in case you forgot, we're from the south and aren't used to this type of cold.)

Long story short, Mr. Cab Driver #2 (aka gift from God) comes along to save us, drives us into DC. We get dropped off near the National's stadium and we do what we came to do best today: WALK. We walked, and walked, and walked, and walked some more. We walked alongside what seemed like the entire continental United States.

We were walking for about a total of 3 hours before we settled in the shadows beneath the Washington Monument. We were literally right in the middle of the National Mall. We had an okay view of a jumbotron and were able to hear and see all the action.

I've been an Obama fan and supporter since he first came on the scene. I literally got chills when I heard Obama's speech at the 2004 Democratic Convention. Chills again when hearing his speeches on the (very long) campaign trail. Major chills when he secured the democratic nomination. Even more chills when he won the election last November. So you can imagine that it wasn't just the cold weather that gave me chills when he took the oath of office today and made history.

Back to our story....Even though we couldn't feel our feet, we had no choice but to (you guessed it) start WALKING. We started walking in the direction of Virginia, knowing we had to walk the entire length of the Mall, across the Memorial Bridge (over an iced over river), to grandmother's house we go....

We finally made it to Arlington Cemetery, took the metro back to my house, and finally- collapsed. (And thawed out- our piles of clothes looked liked we were actually melted snowmen!)


I may not be able to move tomorrow, but I'm pretty sure we'd do it all over again to experience what we did. It was striking to me, that even though the masses of people had to walk our little heads off in subfreezing temperatures, the spirit and mood was joyous, friendly, kind, and courteous. Everything was sunny and bright. Things are definitely ch-ch-ch-changing in our nation's capital, and hopefully the nation.

The walk was long, but worth every single step.