A couple weeks ago, I got an email from Kristin, one of my friends from GIAL, wondering if her roommate and some of her friends could stay at my place when they came up for the inauguration. Of course, I said yes! I had been planning on avoiding the insanity that was inauguration, but since it was suddenly a party, I got some time off work and joined in the fun. Crystal, Jennifer, Ryan, and Ryan’s girlfriend, Bonnie, arrived on the evening of Friday the 16th, and we had a great time getting to know each other (I’d only met Crystal very briefly before and didn’t even know who else was coming) over a tasty meal of pork tenderloin (thanks to my mom’s recipe!). Turns out they’re all really fantastic people!

On Saturday morning, Jennifer, Ryan, and Bonnie left for DC to do touristy things, but Crystal and I stayed at the apartment, and Crystal’s friend Rachel came down from Philadelphia to hang out for the day. We had a good time chatting about Rachel and Crystal’s crazy adventures and Rachel’s absurdly busy life as a teacher, youth worker, mentor, and probably a billion other things. We had a tasty lunch at Indian Delight, and I made some life-changingly-good Assam tea for us afterward (seriously, you should try buying the high-quality stuff; it’s totally different than the low grade). Then Rachel had to leave, and the others came back from DC, and we all went out to eat at Sea Hut Inn. Yum.

On Sunday, everyone went into DC for the start of the inaugural festivities, including a concert with a bunch of big name performers. But, I figured I would probably get my fill of DC on Monday and Tuesday, so I just chilled at the apartment with Zerg.

On MLK day, we all went to DC. Jennifer, Bonnie, and Ryan still wanted to do touristy things, but Crystal and I wanted to go to a program at the National Cathedral, so we split up. The line to get tickets for the Metro was craziness. But, while I was riding the subway in, I met some cool people who live not too far from me and are into competitive sailing. I gave them my contact information, and they said they’d call if they need some extra crew. Here’s hoping!

Going to see the National Cathedral is always fun, and the program was pretty neat. It was a lot of poetry and music about MLK, mostly from local artists. Most of it wasn’t really my style, but they did have a “hip-hop violinist” who was pretty interesting. He wore a snazzy suit, had a shiny black violin, and didn’t say a word during his entire performance. Way to have style! After the concert, we wandered around the Cathedral and checked out the Bishop’s Garden. Kudos to the Bishop on a lovely little garden.

After that, we headed down to the Adams Morgan district to meet up with the others. When we got there, we found out that Jennifer had decided to get a new tattoo. I’d never been in a Tattoo Parlor, so it was definitely an interesting experience. She got an “O” (she’s an Obama fan) with “The People” in the center and “of,” for,” and “by” on the outside. It really looks pretty cool, but I don’t think I’ll be getting one myself any time soon. :-)

By this time, Crystal and I were starving since we’d neglected to eat lunch. The others wanted to go to a La Fourchette, a French restaurant, but Crystal and I thought the Ethiopian one looked more interesting (the others had eaten there for lunch). So we abandoned them and set off for Meskerem Ethiopian Restaurant. I’d only had Ethiopian food once before at the house of one of my professors at GIAL, so it was definitely a treat. I highly recommend it.

Then, we went and looked at a bunch of cool African shops in the area and a particularly neat Tibetan shop. They had a pretty big selection of signing bowls, which were a lot of fun to play with. I wanted to get one, but the cheapest was $60, so I decided against.

Even after all that, the others still hadn’t found a seat at La Fourchette, Crystal so we ended up going in with them when they did get in and just eating dessert there. Then, we all finally went back to my apartment and went to bed at 1 a.m.

2 a.m. came quickly, and then it was time to leave for Inauguration Day! We got to the Greenbelt Metro station at around 3 a.m., waited in line about an hour to park, napped in the car for a while, and then finally boarded the metro. It actually wasn’t too crowded, probably because all the entry points were allowing cars in so slowly. We got off at L’enfant Plaza, which was as close as we could get the Mall.

Walking up to the Mall is probably one of my favorite images from the trip (unfortunately not captured on camera). All of DC had been shut down for the day, so there were no cars on the streets, just thousands of people. It was just before sunrise, and everywhere you looked, the streets were completely packed with people, all heading toward a common goal. Nobody was saying very much because we were all really tired and cold. Just a quiet determination to reach the Mall. It looked like a scene out of some disaster movie. Like we were the only survivors of some horrible tragedy. Or maybe a zombie attack. Or maybe we were the zombies. Mmm, brains…

Eventually, we made our way onto the Mall and staked out our position, just behind the 4th jumbotron back. We made friends with some GWU students who were also in the same area, and then all there was to do was wait. And wait. It seemed like forever. We had arrived at around 7 a.m., and things didn’t get started until 10 a.m. Also, it was crazy cold. My toes in particular hurt because they were so frozen.

Then, things finally started! The capitol building was really too far away to see anything, so we just watched on the jumbotron, and the ceremony was really quite short. But it was still really great to be there in person and know that I was taking part in one of the most important parts of our democracy. Hearing everyone boo Bush when he was announced was embarrassing, but I was struck with how amazing it is that we have a peaceful transition of power every four or eight years. Bush and Obama are very different politically, but there was no struggle for power when the time came to hand over the reins. We are truly blessed in that regard.

After everything was over, it was a bit of a madhouse trying to get out. Our group along with a thousand or so other people got lost in a cluster of porta-potties (almost like the urban version of the corn mazes back in Kansas!) until someone finally climbed up on top and shouted out directions to the exit. Thank you porta-potty man!

Most of the streets were blocked off for the parade, so we ended up walking all the way to Arlington to get on a Metro. Then we wandered around the Chinatown area looking for an Italian place (Jennifer was quite set on getting Italian), but eventually settled on a place called RFD. I had a big hamburger, and it was heavenly. Mmm.

We actually got home at a reasonable hour (8 p.m. or so), and we all went to bed pretty quickly. They all left the next morning, and I drove out to the airport to spend the rest of my week in Florida for a business trip that I just got back from yesterday. It’s been a crazy week, but tons of fun!

More pictures from Inauguration weekend