Inauguration: January 2009 Archives

Cold. Exhausting. Those were my own overriding feelings as I worked this historic event.
Moving. Momentous. Overwhelming. Those were the feelings that followed.
Among the crowd, fulfilling was an adjective used a lot.
The sea of people that turned out for Barack Obama's inauguration, we learned later, was estimated at some 2 million.
At ground zero, it sure felt like it.
What we couldn't see from our various vantage points, however, was how far the panorama stretched. And it wasn't until later, seeing it on television, that I realized what I'd been a part of. I was shocked.
And the feelings I hadn't had time to feel while working, came at night, watching it fully, watching what I hadn't been able to see from in the middle of all those people.
The images bear witness to a day to remember.

The city seems normal before you near the Capitol.

The throngs start to grow as you approach.

Pamela Frazier listens to President Barack Obama's inauguration speech.

(Washington, D.C.) -- For many average folks that traveled here for the inauguration of the nation's first black president, today was about the battle, in so many ways.

The battle for racial equality. The battle for their share of the American Dream. The battle just to get onto the National Mall.

It is just after 7 a.m. eastern time, and we are leaving our hotel, headed to president-elect Barack Obama's inauguration.

With the delays yesterday morning, the Frazier family and their tour group on a "Road trip to the White House" were quite antsy by the second rest stop last night to refuel the bus, in Breezewood, Pa.

But as the "Are we close yets" started to come, the Trailways bus driver got lost. His GPS went haywire. So the group didn't pull up at their Best Western hotel in Denton, Md. (half the group continued to a Best Western in Smyrna, Md.) until after 5 a.m.