I was staying in Virginia Beach, which was about 3 hours south of Washington, and although we had a rental car, all of the roads going into town were closed, and the only way to get into the city was to take the Metro, which opened at 3AM, so we left around 12AM so that we would be able to find parking, when we reached the Metro station around 3:30 there was already a line, and it took us about two hours to board the train.
Here's the line as it was around 4AM:
The train ride was about an hour long and was incredibly crowded and uncomfortable, but everyone was in good spirits and although it was early and we were short on sleep, there was a palpable excitement in everyone's attitude.
There was quite a walk to the mall from the station, but even at 5AM the streets were crowded with people and the mall had already started to fill up with people.
There were a lot of people hocking Obama gear and there were volunteers everywhere, singing songs and helping to direct people that had questions, I don't think I'd ever seen people that excited about anything that early in the morning.
Security was also extremely tight, there were national guard, city police, and secret service probably about every 30 feet and only certain streets had access to the national mall.
There were also monitors every 100 feet or so, that turned out to be a very good idea, as the mall was almost full and we were about 2 miles from the capital.
It was also extremely cold, and people were noticeably uncomfortable, but again, no one complained and everyone seemed to have planned ahead and was very warm, there were also "warming stations" along the mall that were crowded with people trying to get warm, the reflecting pool was also frozen, (the reflecting pool below the Washington Monument is probably the most disgusting cesspool ever)
The festivities started around 11:30, the crowd was pretty much worked into a frenzy at this point, booing and cheering at all the predictable places (Bill and Hillary Clinton got the biggest cheers besides Obama.)
Joe Biden got pretty warm cheers as well, especially at his swearing in:
There was a lot of electricity when Obama came on the screen, Michelle as well, even the shots on the monitors of Obama back stage got the crowd worked up. And even though there was the now infamous judicial ad-lib at the actual oath-taking, you couldn't help but see the the visible emotion in the crowd, it was truly breathtaking, and despite your political affiliations, there is no doubt that history was made.
Good luck Mr. President!
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