Some Inauguration Observations

From Nancy Miller, Sacramento lawyer and restaurant reviewer:

The transportation went without a hitch whether it was cab, metro or bus…kudos to the planners. The inauguration was unbelievable. The crowds were intense but the sentiments soaring.  Welcome to the new age!

I’m in the Hyatt bar where the California delegation is. On TV, Bush’s plane takes off for Texas. The entire place erupts into “Na-na, Na-na, Hey, Hey Hey Goood-Bye!” Who sings that song anyway?

(Editor’s Note: The song was written and recorded by Gary DeCarlo, Dale Frashuer and Paul Leka but attributed to a then-fictitious band “Steam.” Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969.)

From Art Baggett, California State Water Quality Control Board member: 

5:30 AM: 19 degrees and snow flurries in Alexandria  on television the they say 10 degrees with windchill and the mall is already packed!   Warmth in numbers. 

8:30 AM: So here we are…at the intersection of the yellow and purple lines. Chaos rules but it is a happy sardine-packed crowd. Too warm but it will cool off once we finish the mile long crawl to the Yellow Gate and our seats.  There are seats…right? 

It warming up. 

The crowd stretches well past the Washington Monument. It is absolutely amazing how calm and cheerful it is here. Millions of people and, all of a sudden, silence.  Waiting for the President-elect.   

We have great seats about 100 rows back in the center.

 

From sister-in-law, Laurie Lipper Kirk, a Washington resident: 

I just dropped (husband) Larry and our nephew — Larry, of course — and his wife Mari off at the Watergate Hotel so they can walk to the Lincoln Memorial to watch the inauguration on the Tron. 

Counter to all predictions and promotions: The streets are almost completely empty of cars — just streams of very bundled up pedestrians and armies of down-covered bicyclists flowing through the streets of Georgetown and across the waterfront along the Potomac. 

It is eerily quiet.  After dropping them off, I drove back through the deserted city streets. The only sight worth noting was that of the two huge white moving vans in front of the Vice President’s home at the Navel Observatory on Massachusetts Avenue.

 

President Obama’s speech

-30-