I took the train into DC around 4:30 am – I had to catch the third train because the first two were completely full. Here is the crowd trying to get out of Metro Center at 5 am.

All the streets leading to the mall were blocked off until 7 am, so I stood around with these people. ↓

There were cops standing in one of the buildings, waving at us and taking pictures. ↓

I stood in the same spot for a loooong time – from dark to daylight. The barricade didn’t open and no one moved anywhere. ↓

So I gave up on this crowd and went to stand with another crowd. ↓

There were lots of colorful characters around, like this Uncle Sam on stilts. ↓

An ambulance was trying to drive through the crowd – this meant some serious shoving and crushing to allow the ambulance to get through. ↓

I stood with these people for a while, but after an hour I had barely moved anywhere. It was after 9 am – that’s four hours standing around in freezing weather – and I was afraid that I wasn’t going to get into the Mall. People were on their cell phones with friends who said that they could see the Mall on TV and it looked full. Others said that this checkpoint was closed and they weren’t letting in more people. So I left this mob and joined another mob and started walking. ↓

And by 10 am I could see the Washington Monument – I made it! So happy and so relieved. ↓

This was my spot in the Mall – waaay back by the Washington Monument. I couldn’t see the Capitol at all, but did have a nice view of the jumbotron. I was also a bit off to the side because I wanted some breathing room. I was tired of being crushed up against other people. ↓

Everyone leaving the Mall. ↓

There were no trash cans on the Mall for security reasons, so you can only imagine how much trash there was. There were crews waiting to pick up all that garbage. ↓

The lake behind the Washington Monument was frozen over. ↓

And here are all the crazy people walking on the lake – you can see in the above pictures that there are parts of the lake that weren’t frozen. I thought all those people running around on the lake were completely crazy! ↓

After the inauguration I followed the masses out of the Mall. I didn’t really know where I was going, I just kept walking. ↓

When I started walking across this bridge over a giant river, I realized that the road I was on was not going to loop around and go back into Washington DC. I was headed for Virginia! ↓

And this was the end of my odyssey: Rosslyn, Virginia. I found an Italian place that had some very delicious pizza, drank two glasses of wine, and then hopped on the Metro to get back into the city. ↓

By the time I got back to my friend’s apartment in DC I was wiped out. When I flew back Wednesday morning I had a sore throat and felt like I might have a fever. But it was more than worth it – a once in a lifetime experience!