The view on Saturday from the Mall of Inauguration preparation.
Check out all those portable bathrooms!
WWII memorial in winter (no fountains like in the summer).
Can you tell it was cold out? Check out those red noses...brrrrr!!
Prepping for the big kick-off concert tomorrow! We got to see Cheryl Crow and Will.I.am practicing.
The Capital, where a couple days later Obama would be sworn in - no way could we get this close on Tuesday!
The other side of the Capital building.
We took a tour! Which did not turn out to take us to very many places, but cool nonetheless.
View of the Capital rotunda ceiling.
More rotunda views...
One of the many famous (and giant) paintings in the Capital rotunda.
The original House of Representatives...before they got too big and needed a new wing.
THe sign above the hallway the Nancy Pelosi's office, she's one of few with an office in the Capital.
Just stairs, right? No...the flight of stairs that Obama will walk down before making his entrance onto the balcony for his speech :)
A scale plaster mold of the statue that is at the top of the capital dome.
The crowds as we emerged from the metro station on our way to the inaugural concert.
One of the MANY vendors sellings Obama-related items!
At the concert - before the mall filled up!
The crowds converging on the mall for the big concert.
Dont' mess with them!
Our view of the concert (well, mine was a few feet down from this!)
The crowds behind us.
A zoomed in view with a nice look at all the giant screens.
A very zoomed in view - we certainly weren't this close!
The line to get Metro tickets on Monday afternoon to get downtown - glad we already had tickets!!
The line to get into the National Archives...we'll save that one for another trip!
The rotunda of the Natural History Museum.
Ooooohhh....look out for the dinosaurs!
Look out for the T-Rex!
A nice view from inside the Smithsonian of the sunset, Washington memorial, and of course, those green and blue portable bathrooms :)
Our friend...the Metro.
Game time! We spent our evenings playing games with Christy, Jeff, my dad, and Tracy. This is “Mystery at the Abbey.” I won this game!
My dad with a goofy smile, and Tracy.
Christy and Jeff battling with us in “Settlers of Catan”...I did not win this one :)
Me and my dad.
The location at which we (and a crowd of others) watched Obama's swearing in and speech - a cafe in the DC airport. It was a cool moment, it was as if everything paused for that time and all eyes were on the event.
Heading out of DC, the mall mostly empty a few hours after the swearing in of Obama.
