breakthesky.neti'll break the sky, for you and i are going nowhere.

Instead of having only one photo in my weekly Photo of the Week post, I’m going to post five. An inauguration like the one for Obama is once in a lifetime, and one photo isn’t enough to adequately explain the experience I had at the inauguration! My Photo of the Week posts will resume its regular format next week ;)

Large crowds were already forming at around 5:30am. Some people had camped out on the Mall all night in freezing temperatures! By 5:30am, I had been walking around the city for over an hour. My friends and I were trying to find a restaurant that was open for breakfast and warmth as we made our way to the National Mall.

I arrived at the Washington Monument at 7:40am. The sun had already risen by then, and I gradually made my way to the National Mall to find a place to sit until the inauguration ceremony began. Along the way, I was greeted by many enthusiastic volunteers and other spectators who were all incredibly excited to witness and be a part of history.

The size of the crowd! I’m in that photo somewhere. It looks really crowded, and it obviously was, but not packed to the point where spectators were squashed up against each other. Everyone I encountered was really friendly, which helped the close proximity a lot.

Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, and Jill Biden before the ceremony started. I have video footage of Obama’s arrival at the ceremony as well as the swearing in of both Obama and Biden, but WordPress won’t let me upload the videos, so this photo will have to do.

Getting out was an absolute nightmare. They closed off one of the exits for reasons I still don’t understand, and there were just throngs of people trying to get out where fences and blocks were in place. I ended up walking on a highway to Virginia. I found out the hard way that the highway was not closed off and was still open for cars and buses…