The Sparks went to Washington...: Inauguration Day

Today American swore in its 44th President, and the first African-American to take the Oath. A truly historic day. It dawned bright and very cold. We got up and switched on CNN and found that the Mall was already pretty full. Apparently by 10am the police were funnelling people down towards the Lincoln Memorial end of the Mall as the Capitol building end was packed out. People had been waiting from 2am in order to get a prime spot.

For the past two or three weeks the local authorities had spread gloom about how awful it was going to be to get there, be there and get home again. We were told that Metro wouldn't cope with the demand, that security would be the tightest ever seen (you could take almost nothing onto the Mall - no umbrellas, backpacks etc), there was a shortage of portapotties, that you'd need to wait hours to get back into the Metro to get home...and according to the news today certainly some of that was true. Having been up on Sunday and experienced it with a quarter of the people, we decided to not brave it and take the easier option of watching the Jumbotron on Market Square.

There was a pretty big crowd, and it was great to be with people watching the events unfold. I was interested to see the reactions when the former Presidents appeared to take the stage and watch the Inauguration. There were big cheers for Jimmy Carter, some scattered polite clapping for George Bush Sn, huge cheers for Bill Clinton and boos mixed with polite clapping for Dubya. The crowd was totally ecstatic when Barack Obama appeared at the Capitol steps ready to watch Joe Biden take the Vice Presidential oath.

As it turned out, Joe Biden was actually technically President of the USA for about 6 minutes today. Under the Constitution the outgoing President is no longer President at exactly 12 noon, but President Obama didn't take the oath until 6 minutes past. These things are timed to the second, and it all ran a little bit over! This meant the the VP (who had been sworn in) was POTUS for a few minutes. I wonder if he realised at the time? At least he didn't make a grab for The Button!

There was pretty much silence during Obama's Oath taking, but the crowd went wild as soon as he'd uttered the finals words - even if there was a stumble over some of them! He jumped the gun a little, then Chief Justice John Roberts got the words the wrong way round! His speech was well received - lots of clapping, whooping and cheering!

We spotted Andy, Marie and their neighbours as the crowds dispersed so we headed to a nearby bar to thaw out. After a drink and a snack we headed off for a wander about, then headed home to watch the parade. It was running about 1 hour late, so we got to see the President and First Lady walk part of the parade route. Security was exceptionally tight in DC, but people were still anxious in case anything should happen to him. I guess it only takes one nutter with a gun.