Inauguration 2009 - Getting Home

And so with a new President sworn in we needed to get home. We knew that we'd need to wait a bit to let the crowds thin and so we decided that we'd walk to the Washington Monument to see if we could get an idea of how many people were there. Perhaps then we'd walk to the Lincoln Memorial or through a museum to kill some time. Unfortunately, that isn't what happened. Remember the barricades around the Mall? There were some blocking the road that separates the museum part of the mall from the Washington Monument part of the mall. Again we were faced with a left or right decision, but had no time to make it before we were swept along by the crowd to the left (in retrospect we should have gone right, there are significantly more metro stations and restaurants in that direction.) Again we were faced with a huge crowd going through a small gate. We shuffled along trying to stay together as best as possible, laughing with our new best friends at the craziness of it all. Most everyone was understanding that given our numbers things like this were going to happen, but other people just didn't seem to get it and continued to push and grumble and be aggressive with the police (who didn't really know anything other than that they were told to monitor that spot and keep people moving through the barricade). Eventually we made it through and followed the crowd towards L'Enfant station. By the time we got there there were hundreds of thousands of people milling outside the station...and rumors flying that the station was closed or the station wouldn't open until after the parade ended (at 5). We decided to try to either find a hotel lobby to crash (a naive plan at best) or make our way further down the metro line and get on before L'Enfant. I'd stayed at the Holiday Inn on that part of town before and knew how to get it and that there were some restaurants nearby, and saw that the Federal Center stop was nearby. We slowly picked our way in that direction, but had to work our way around crowds, ambulances and buses that were parked in the street as additional blockades.

From Inauguration 2009 Obama

When we got to the Holiday Inn it was crammed AND there was security making sure you had a key (probably should have guessed that), but the FEMA building was next door so we took a chance that they'd let us come in to get warm. The guard said they couldn't let us in to get warm, but could let us in to use the restroom...suddenly the urge to go to the bathroom was incredibly intense so she let us in and pointed us to a long, long line for the bathrooms. We were able to comfortably take off our gloves for the first time all day and we ate some of the snacks we'd brought that we hadn't been able to reach while we were in the crowd. That half an hour of waiting in line was just what we needed to head back out and try to figure out how or if we were going to get home that night. It had taken us almost three hours to get about 6 city blocks in the crowds and the sun was starting to go behind the buildings and the wind was starting to pick up.

We found the metro station and the line for the metro station that wound almost all the way around the block. Of course we didn't know that when we got in it, it LOOKED like it only covered two sides of the block, but we couldn't see that where it looked like we entered the metro building, was just a point where the line went into a breezeway. After about 90 minutes in line we reached that point and just as it started to sink in that we were not almost there and possibly weren't even halfway there we had a small miracle. A cop came running up to the line and asked if anyone was part of a group and if so to follow her. We joked that we were a group of three (assuming she meant a particular group), she bruskly replied that she didn't care what group it was as long as it was a group so we, and two other ladies who had heard the exchange, followed her as she trotted up to the very front of line and sent us in. Dad almost didn't make it because the policeman at the front of the line didn't believe he was part of our group, but then did let him in (can you spell disaster!?!) anyway, we went through the gate just in time for the train for our line to arrive. A national guardsman told us to go to the end cars if we wanted to sit and so we did go to the end and we were able to sit! Given that the metro ended up being three times as crowded on the way back as it was on the way over, that was a huge blessing!

Now our original plan was that after we got off the metro in Fairfax that we'd take a bus to the local shopping mall and then connect with Wayne to decide whether he could pick us up on his way home from work or if we should take another bus to our neighborhood and walk about 1/2 mile home. This plan wasn't looking very attractive, but Wayne is working on a tight deadline for a big project and I didn't want to distract him more than I needed to. I called him when the Metro crossed into Virginia to let him know that we'd finally made it on to the metro and he said that he was just picking up the kids at daycare and could swing by and pick us up at the metro station instead of us taking the bus. Best Husband EVER! As the train pulled up to the station I could actually see him in the exit lane on the highway. We had a little confusion over whether they'd let him into the kiss and ride area, but within about 5 minutes we were in the van accosting him with random anecdotes from our day...did I mention BEST HUSBAND EVER? 15 hours later we were back home again - tired and cold but so happy!

We ordered pizza and all struggled to stay awake long enough to eat it. Susan nodded off first in the easy chair watching inauguration recaps. Dad went to check on her and disappeared into bed. I put the kids down while Wayne worked, he said that I staggered into the room and was asleep before my head bounced on the pillow once.

So, the last part was kind of miserable, but it didn't spoil the day. In fact, even as we were trudging along people were laughing and chanting and talking about how incredible it was to be there. And even now I can't believe that I was able to go and witness the ceremony and the people. I don't have a button to prove it...but I was there!