Historic Day

OK, so I told the Kid Reporters they could have the night off after such an eventful day. This is Mom#1~
Wow, how does one even describe this???? In a nutshell, it's incredible. I hear that he's already put out an executive order to cancel any pending orders put out by the previous administration...I love it ;)
OK, so, we've got several stories to tell, but since Kid#1 and I had tickets, I'll try to tell ours first.
First was the early morning. We had asked for a 6:30 wake-up call, and ended up with one at 4 - but I didn't realize it until we had gotten up and gotten ready already. UGH! Kid Reporter #1 ended up falling asleep, so I sat in a chair, set my cell alarm, and went to sleep until 6:30.
We headed out, and although I was prepared to walk, I had no idea HOW MUCH we'd end up walking!!! I won't go into all the cold, weary details, but I did have a couple complaints about the local law enforcement - they weren't very big on the help (it was limited to one short sentence) and inevitably it lead us in the wrong direction. Three times. Yea. Sooooo, we finally wind up going in the right direction (by the way, we left at 6:45, got in line by 8am)and waiting. And walked five feet. And waited. And chatted with our line-mates. And waited. Until by 11am, we were stuck in a crush of people just a block from our gate, wondering if we should stay or go! I was busy fending off elbows and trying to keep people from pushing into Kid Reporter#1. We ended up along a side, and wound up in front of a line of cop motorcycles, and they suddenly let a couple people walk in.
Once behind this barrier, we walked to a grassy knoll, because from there we could see the Capitol and thee platform, although they were so far away they weren't more than ants. In front of us, on the road, they let more people in, and judging by the swarm of people who poured in screaming, I made the executive mommy decision that we would NOT try to brave the rest of the route into the Silver Section (it wasn't that much farther in, anyways). We stood on our rise until right after the orchestral piece, after which we decided to go to the road and walk down it, since the crowds had actually thinned. We found a decent spot on the road that allowed me to tape off a jumbo-tron, plus get some better zoom-shots of the "ants".
The important part, though, was that we could hear, and when we stopped in the road, we were able to hear the oath of office, and then his speech. He was so clear, so powerful and confident - it was a fantastic thing to hear. And although we weren't in a big group of people at that time - the General Admission was behind us, behind a fence - you could still get that sense of pride and joy from all around. When Obama did his oath, the sun was shining, and it got warmer. I'm not joking! Right after it was done, the clouds covered the sun and it got cold again! I looked around, seeing the people's faces, hearing them talk, just taking in all the humanity. It really made you realize what a small world we live in, and how important it is for everyone from everywhere, to get along and work together. After all, we all want the same things - family, security, happiness, home. And at that moment, we all wanted to work together, I think - it was that inspiring.
We saw lots of different kinds of people - I saw people from Tonga, Ireland, someone from Samoa dressed with a leaf headress and native costume, old, young, you name it, they were there. Before it started, people generally were very friendly and acommodating. Of course afterwards, some people were tired and ready to go home, when it was nearly impossible - but in a way, I can totally understand that. If one was to look at the shear scope of people who were there, I think it went remarkably well!!!
Going back, wow, well, that was a whole different thing. Imagine that you are inside a circle that you can't get out of - that's what it seemed like. All around us were roads that were closed due to the pending parade, and then we wound up in a crush of people trying to take the Metro (for my local friends, think BART)and then they closed the station. EGADS! I was afraid we'd get caught in a crush of people. We had to backtrack all the way back, go in the opposite direction from where we wanted to go, and finally go up around the capitol to get on the correct side of the parade. Luckily we found a Pedicab that took us close. WHEW!!!!
I'm super tired, and my feet are killing me - I basically walked almost nonstop from 6:30 - 3:30pm - so tomorrow, KidReporter #1 (and hopefully #2 with HIS story) will return, plus any details that are more clear after sleep...but let me just end with, even though I typed a lot about the crowds and crush and how we didn't get to our ticketed spot - I wouldn't trade the experience for the world. And Kid#1 was INCREDIBLE.....held up without a single complaint through the whole thing. What a trooper!! I saw grown adults that were tired and crying. Not this guy, not once. Kudos to our intrepid reporter!!!
OH, a couple quick notes - I'd like to give a shout-out to the super-sweet Assistant to my Rep Pete Stark, Michelle, who was so sweet when we picked up our tickets yesterday. They were so nice, offering refreshements, and a comfy chair, and invited us back for today, but we were so tired we didn't make it.
Oo! On the TV they just showed the president and First lady doing their dance at the Western Ball, that Kid Reporter #2's aunt is at! We should get a good scoop tomorrow...
'Nite for now~