at the inauguration

So the inauguration was pretty fun.  The bus ride and walk to the mall weren't nearly as crowded as I had expected, although there were still plenty of people out.  Once near the mall volunteers with red hats on greeted us, improving the mood of just about everyone who went by, much needed early on a cold day.  On the mall by the Lincoln Memorial things were still not too crowded, so we walked towards the Capitol.  And when we got to the Washington Monument there was pretty much a solid wall of people.  We spent a few minutes deciding whether to stop or press on, and then once we'd decided to try to find a good place there, spent another half hour or so maneuverinng to find it.  Then we just hung out there, took a few pictures, listened to the Marine Band over the PA system, watched various dignitaries get seated and shake hands up at the Capitol on the giant TVs that were still far away...  And eventually Bush came out, to a loud boos from across the mall, which ,though justifiable, seemed inappropriate for the occasion.  Obama came out to huge cheers, there was silence while he took the oath of office, and then there were huger cheers.  During the inaugural address there were a number of cheers, although I wish that some of them had been longer.  It never quite reached that pitch of religious revival that I'd sort of anticipated.  I suppose that's good though, don't want the populace behaving any more like a bunch of religious zealots than they already do...  That was all exciting, although the speech ended a bit abruptly, and without giving us one last chance to applaud and cheer, which was rather surprising and disappointing.  The most disappointing thing though was the amount of trash people left lying on the mall after they left.  We'd brought in some food for ourselves, and took the containers back home with us.  Lots of other people bought stuff from stands along the way, and left the trash on the ground...  Amazingly wasteful, more so in the context of the speech we'd just heard.  Still, overall a good day.  We walked back to Chris's place rather than risk the buses, and spent the rest of the day listening to events on the radio, watching "how I met your mother" and playing Risk.