The Rising
Last month, Pierre and I headed down to Washington for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. It was fun and emotional and I was so happy to be there for this historic moment and to share it with so many of my friends and family. Here's Rakhi, Pierre and me all bundled up, walking to the Mall on the morning of the Inauguration.
The above picture is not from the Inauguration but from September 2007 in Iowa. It's from the book Yes We Can by Scout Tufankijian, who followed Obama for two years on the campaign trail. I really love this book because it has so many wonderful photographs of Obama and his family and the reception he received all across America and overseas. The book also contains some of his famous quotes. This one almost made me cry:"I should not be here today. I was not born into money or status. I was born to a teenage mom in Hawaii, and my dad left us when I was two. But my family gave me love, they gave me education, and most of all they gave me hope—hope that in America, no dream is beyond our grasp if we reach for it, and fight for it, and work for it."
Madison, Wisconsin, February 12, 2008
The first inaugural event we attended was the "We Are One" concert at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, January 18. We stood in the cold for 6 hours and were not too close to the stage, but we were packed in like sardines. I was not a big fan of that, and we couldn't see a Jumbotron, so we didn't always know what was going on or who was performing. One amazing thing was the long line of Porta-Potties everywhere. Here's a shot of them stretching on as far as the eye can see.
Pierre and I bundled up against the cold, waiting for the concert to begin. My toes got so cold at one point (and I was wearing thick wool socks!), that I started to worry about frostbite.
Here's all the people that were in front of us. Only tall people like Pierre were able to see anything!
Snipers stationed on the top of the Lincoln Memorial.
View of the stage.
On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we went with some of our University of Michigan friends to a reception for John Dingell (D) of SE Michigan in the House Energy Committee meeting room in the Rayburn House next to the Capitol. Here is Rakhi, Julia, me and Pierre posing with Dingell.
It was really fun to sit in the comfy chairs in the Committee meeting room. There were so many events and receptions going on that day, I think we could have crashed a bunch of them.
After the reception, we walked by the Capitol to get a view of the Inauguration platform.
Another view of the Capitol the night before the Inauguration.
We also strolled by the Newseum and looked at the headlines from around the country about the Inauguration. That was really amazing.
We got up early on Inauguration Day and headed down to the Washington Monument at 8am. The grounds were starting to fill up, but we were able to stake out a good spot.
Here's a shot of the crowd filling in behind us.
Our unobstructed view of the Jumbotron.
Obama swearing in as the 44th President of the United States of America!
Crowds cheering and clapping after the swearing in ceremony.
We almost walked home after the inauguration because we were worried about dealing with crowds on the Metro. We walked by a bunch of tour buses, one of which had this funny sign on its door. I'm not sure what "Yes We Can" has to do with the bus rules. . .
posted by Unknown @ Saturday, February 07, 2009
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