You basically had to choose one or the other, see the parade or be on the Mall so we did not see or attempt to see the parade, where the security issues were also in effect. I have to assume that section where Obama walked was a highly staged event because the pictures I saw only had a few people lining the streets. I guess the security surrounding this president is understandable. I think the lowest estimates regarding the crowds are the number of people turned away from various checkpoints and prevented from getting either on the Mall or along the parade route. I think there were probably tens of thousands who did not get to see what they came to see. Anyway, after the swearing in we went to the L'Enfant VRE train stop and tried to catch an earlier train out but couldn't, so went to Natural History Museum to warm up, then went back to train station and sort of wormed our way on to an earlier train than we were scheduled for. Which took us to Manassas, from where we drove home, picking up a bottle of Scotch on the way.
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- jimlouis 1-22-2009 10:19 pm