As I mentioned yesterday, my friend Brian was able to get his hands on a pair of prime tickets to the Inauguration ceremony. The problem? We didn’t get up at the ass-crack of dawn to claim our space. In hindsight, I wish I’d driven over to Brian’s place that morning so we could have commuted in together — at least I would have had company!
I arrived at the King Street metro just after 8am, and the platform wasn’t too crowded. However, the train itself was. A bunch of people must have parked at one of the two earlier stops on the blue line, because I was one of the last people to squish into my particular train car.
On the Metro, even though it took 1.5 hours to reach my stop (on a typical day, the same trip would take about 30 minutes), the mood was pretty jovial. Our driver kept things light by giving us frequent updates over the intercom, and he’d purposefully say things to make us laugh.
(Since I was standing near one of the doors, I joined my fellow door-standers in creating a non-moving wall of bodies so people on crowded platforms couldn’t force their way into our car. Some of our fellow passengers appreciated this gesture so much, they cheered for us!)
There was a mix-up in the information I received, so I got off at the Federal Triangle stop instead of Capitol South, which is where Brian disembarked (this is why we weren’t able to meet up and ended up walking around separately). You see, once I exited from Federal Triangle, I couldn’t re-enter that particular Metro — there were so many outgoing passengers, they weren’t allowing anyone to come back in.
I attempted to walk to another nearby Metro station, but once I walked a few blocks in one direction I’d find the street was blocked off and there was no way to progress any further. I’d try another direction, same result.
In other words, there were numerous factors that thwarted my attempt to see the Inauguration. But even Brian, arriving at the correct location, wasn’t able to claim his spot — after standing in line for a while at the security checkpoint, he was told he wouldn’t make it through in enough time to see anything.
After I consulted a number of Hot Uniformed Officers, they were able to direct me to a Metro stop that was actually accepting incoming passengers — L’Enfant Plaza. (Goodness gracious, there certainly were a lot of police officers and military guys standing around yesterday! I think the only advantage to being by myself was all the sympathy and helpful instruction I received whenever I asked for help. I’d like to give a particularly special shout-out to an officer from Massachusetts, stationed near 14th and Constitution, who noticed me wandering around and made sure I was headed in the right direction.)
Once I was finally on the right path (and temporarily free from any road closures blocking my progress), I hightailed it over to L’Enfant Plaza rather than attempting to watch the swearing-in ceremony on one of the huge Jumbotron screens. I knew that once it was over, an untold number of people would rush to this very location — and no way was I going to get stuck for another couple of hours. Luckily, I was able to board the very next yellow line train and I was soon on my way home.
Time of initial departure from King St Metro: 8:05am
Arrival at Federal Triangle: 9:35am
Waited for Brian until: 10:10am
Walked around, attempted to find my way: for another 2 hours
Boarded train at L’Enfant Plaza: 12pm
Arrived home: 12:45pm
16 Comments
Zandria, at least you tried. The exciting thing is you were part of something bigger then yourself, even if only for a minute.
Chris
What a bummer that you didn’t get to see the inauguration live! But it sounds like you had quite the adventure and at least got to get your men-in-uniform fix for a while;)
i’m jealous of the sleep you got, lol. we left my house around 4:30, ran into a number of problems, but managed to get onto the parade route by 10:30-ish. (yes, that is a six hour long commute, what with metro and walking and waiting to get through security.) but it was worth it…we were standing in the area where obama and michelle walked, and we got some pics of joe and jill. i have them up on my blog, if you want to check them out
We had tickets and didn’t get in either! We waited in a two mile long line that we were told multiple times was the right one by volunteers, but then ended up being full of people without tickets, never moved, and ultimately resulted in us missing the chance to watch the inauguration. Boo!
Sorry you didn’t make it, but at least you got to watch it on the big screen. Either way it was a memorable occasion.
~K
Sorry about the mix up Zan, ultimately it didn’t matter because we wouldn’t have gotten in anyways, but I still wish you could have at least hung out on the mall with us.
And if nothing else, at least it was an adventure! :)
It was worth the drama. Did you at least get to see the parade once home?
oh wow. i’m so sorry you didn’t get in. i know of a number of people who had tickets, went to the right gate and all, and still weren’t allowed in. that’s crazy!
btw, i may be why you found a crowded metro train at king street. :( i had to go from pentagon to franconia-springfield just to get on a train in the opposite direction to get off at foggy bottom. i wasn’t the only one who had this idea, so by the time we got to franconia (before heading back out towards largo), no one got off but there was a platform full of people trying to get on.
So sorry Zandria – that totally stinks! Do you realize you boarded the train back home right when he was being sworn in? Were you able to at least listen to it?
But thank goodness for the Hot Uniformed Officers, right? :)
Ugh, that’s terrible. Better to have tried and fai- eh, eff that crap. I’m sorry.
Yay for uniforms…
sounds like a huge bummer.
Sorry to hear about that.
Bummer you weren’t able to go. But you always have such a good attitude about things!
Hey, at least you tried.
What a shame… at least you were there to soak up some of the atmosphere! When you’re old and grey you can just have creative lisence and tell you grandkids you watched the whole thing anyway.
sorry you were among those who had it so rough. i hope you don’t regret it, too much. still a moment to behold, no? sounds like you soaked it in.