Student recounts experiences in Washington D.C.
After making plans with my uncle who lives in Fairfax, Va. and two months of anticipation, it was finally time for two friends and myself to make our trip to D.C. Freshman Kara Wynkoop, Sophomore Peter Robertson, and I left early Saturday morning in expectation of the traffic my uncle had warned us about. Luckily, we experienced no traffic and arrived at my uncle’s house after a smooth ten-hour drive. We planned on doing some sightseeing in the District on Sunday, but found out that there was going to be a free concert at the Lincoln Memorial.
The concert was starting at 2:30 p.m., so we went into the city early to visit some monuments before the concert started. As soon as we got off the Metro train around 8 a.m., it was obvious that there we were not the only ones who had travelled into the city. The concert was not starting for a few hours, but there were already many people heading to the Lincoln Memorial to claim their spot for the show. After grabbing some much needed warm coffee we joined the crowds to wait for the concert.
It had been pretty cold in Milledgeville in the few days leading up to our trip, but I was definitely not ready for how cold it was in our nation’s capitol. We spent a few hours shivering on the lawn in front of the Lincoln Memorial before the concert started. The concert was called “We are One” and served as the opening inaugural celebration for the next few days. The concert was excellent to say the least. Many celebrities donated their time and talent to come to D.C. and honor our new president. Artists such as U2, Beyonce, Stevie Wonder, and Garth Brooks delivered songs that spoke of the heart of America and the future ahead. Tom Hanks, Martin Luther King III, Laura Linney, and Denzel Washington are just a few of the public figures who gave speeches and quoted famous presidents and leaders. The concert was broadcast for free on HBO and was a great start to the Inauguration.
Barack Obama and his family spent Monday doing volunteer service in the Washington D.C. area, and we spent it visiting as many museum, monuments, and memorials as possible. The Smithsonian Institute Museums are free so we visited the Museum of Air and Space and well as the Museum of Natural History. We wanted to walk past and visit the White House, but it was so crowded; we were clearly not the only ones who wanted a picture of the famous house. We got lucky later that night when we were traveling across the mall on our way to the Metro station from the Vietnam War Memorial. CNN was broadcasting and Anderson Cooper was holding his show right there on the National Mall. A lot of people surrounded the news anchor and host of “Anderson Cooper 360″ to try to get their fifteen minutes of fame on the television.
The next morning was Inauguration Day. We woke up early to try to be on the train by 4:30 a.m. in hopes of getting a spot on the Mall close to Capitol Building before all of the crowds came. We were clearly unaware of the amounts of people who had the same idea. The trains were very crowded and we ended up not arriving on the Mall until after 7. By the time we got into the city, there were already many people waiting on the streets for the parade which was not scheduled to happen until after 2:30 p.m.
By the time we reached the Mall, we were only able to get as close to the Capitol as halfway between the building and the Washington Monument. It was incredibly crowded, but there were huge screens around the Mall so that everyone who was there would be able to see. We were surrounded by strangers, but everyone was united by the reason they were there: to welcome and support the new President.
The swearing-in ceremony didn’t start until 11:30 a.m., but there were many people there much earlier than that. The We Are One concert from two days earlier was shown on the screens as everyone waited for the President-Elect and his family to arrive. Eventually the concert ended and the screens were showing the activity at the Capitol. We watched as Representatives, Governors, Senators and the like travelled through the Capitol and found their seats.
Eventually all four living Presidents took their seats with their wives. It was very moving to see President Carter, President George Bush, President Clinton, and President George W. Bush welcomed their successor. The ceremony was brief compared to the amount of time the people on the mall had spent in anticipation. It was surreal to be in the presence of so many people who all wanted to share in the experience of the Inauguration of the first black president.
A moving prayer and a song by Aretha Franklin led the way to the swearing-in of a President for the 56th time. Soon after Obama’s powerful and gracious speech, the 2 plus million people started heading for the train. It was a chaotic and somewhat miserable experience trying to leave the mall and get on a train. It took Peter, Kara and I almost four hours to leave the Mall and get on a train due to the massive amounts of people trying to squeeze into one of the Metro stations that weren’t closed.
Soon after we got back to my Uncle’s, we headed back to Milledgeville. Once again wary of traffic, we were expecting to arrive back at school around 7 a.m. But, we were lucky to again have a smooth, traffic-free ten-hour ride back to school. The trip was tiring, but incredibly worth it. It was definitely an experience that I will always remember and can share with everyone who was unable to attend.
Posted by Colonnade Archives
on Jan 23 2009. Filed under News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
