Inauguration weekend redux

Here is a quick group of pictures to tell the story of how I saw the Inauguration on Tuesday.

This is the crowd walking down 18th Street, before we even got near the Mall. The crowd just kept growing the closer we got and then at one point, the most amazing thing happened.
Right at 18th and E and sort of out of nowhere since it was supposed to be pedestrians only, the cops made us stop walking. Jym, Young Kevin and I were near the front of the impasse and I (in totally unsurprising fashion) was getting a little grumpy that they had stopped us. Then, there it was. The presidential limo, looking for all in the world like a shiny black tank. I stood on my toes to get a better look (thanks, Mom and Dad, for my tall genes) and I saw a hand, a wave. The President-elect. I knew we'd get no closer than that and made a joke about turning around and going back. Thank goodness the boys weren't paying attention to that nonsense.We came out on the Mall near the WWII Memorial and my thoughts turned to my dad, who isn't here to see this amazing, historic day, but would have been so proud of our country.
We tried to get closer to the Washington Monument to meet up with friends, but realized it was a fool's errand and that we were all together in spirit anyway (along with two million others), so we stayed right in front of the WWII Memorial.
Looking backwards, towards the Lincoln Memorial, all we could see was more people, the most I've ever seen in one place. All joined together for a few moments' time to witness history and wish the best of luck to our new President.

Afterwards, on our way back up 18th Street, the throng was just as overwhelming. I couldn't resist taking a picture of the Democrat donkey, on his way back to wherever he came from.
Then after warming up at Solly's, we went to Duffy's for dinner, where I befriended some nice police officers who were on duty for 24 hours straight to protect all of us from harm.

This is most important event in our nation's history that I have witnessed first-hand, albeit from over a mile away and on a jumbotron. Nevertheless, I will cherish for the rest of my life the pride, joy and overwhelming sense of hope I experienced during the inauguration of Barack Obama.