Hey there!
So I’m back…and refreshed. I ate some fabulous dinner at Galluedet’s cafeteria. FABULOUS meal! haha not that you care.
But I would like to share with you the logistical nightmare that I am beginning to hear was the same no matter who you were or where you were going today.
So as the corps left this morning I headed out with some Colt Cadet members to the parade line. I followed them in and quickly began to see how many people were coming out for this big day.
Once we arrived near 4th street on the Westside of the capital it was total chaos. The police told me I couldn’t go to the parade without credentials (which was true) so I asked them were I could go to get to the National Mall (where I did have credentials). They sent me up to 7th street. It was two blocks over and several blocks up. There I got stuck…waited forever. Well not forever but it felt like it. That’s where I did my morning phoner from and I felt so helpless.
Then it was brought to my attention that I actually needed to go back to 3rd street. So I walked all the way back and then a few miles under D.C. on 3rd street. At this point my spirits started to pick up! 
I was getting into the crowds excitement and enjoying the experience.
You see volunteers were all excited and cheery and saying “WELCOME…YOU’RE ALMOST THERE!” So my attitude changed!
Here’s what it looked like on the way.
So my next step was a mistake that turned out to be good. I followed the crowd the wrong way and ended up here:
It literally took my breath away!!! The amount of people that were there! So I did a phoner from this location and the word I used to describe this was UNBELIEVABLE!!! its true!
BUT I realized that I had a press pass that got me closer…so I ventured down to 7th street (this time on the other side of the capital). And here is what I found:
people everywhere…closer to the capital and an amazing shot of the jumbotron.
Everyone had these American flags and they waved them everytime something happened or Barack said something worthy of a cheer.
If you look at the back of this pic you see that jumbotron in the background. That was the first one…closest to the Capital.
And here is an example of some Obama gear…pretty sweet!
All in all, today was an amazing experience. To be a part of history…not matter what you did today…is amazing! As I’ve said many times it’s a blessing to be here. I have seen this trip though the eyes of so many eastern Iowan’s and it’s great to know so many of you have followed the trip. I hope that it helped you feel like you were along for the ride. I enjoyed bringing it to you and hopefully made you feel like you were right next to me (which would have been cool cause I would have had you hold some of my gear).
So there you have it. 16 hours later I’m calling it good night. The Colts got back safely and they are packing up as I write. Of course I’ve got a lot of things to close my time here. Final thoughts, final video recap and some other extra’s I didn’t have time to do while I was here.
Anyway…this isn’t goodbye…it’s just see you later. Will update you on the trip back.
Until the next wireless connection….Goodbye
Lauren~
Posted under Uncategorized
This post was written by lsquires on January 20, 2009
Thank you for all of your wonderful posts! Made me feel like I was there with you, except my fingers and toes were not frozen solid!!
This reminds me of when I was in Dc with the colts in 2006. We were on a free day and we all were hungry so we thought we would go to the national mall for food. Little did we know the national mall was not a shopping center. We wound up going to the national archives hoping they had food but group got impaitent, split up, and left me looking at the declaration of independence without me knowing I had been left behind. Any way it took a while for me to navigate my way a around DC by myself. It took even longer for me to find food. Any way I hope you had fun with the colts. They are a great group of people, and I am almost positve that you will remember your time with the colts for along time. You should talk to greg about going on tour with them for a week!
thank you for all you had to go through to get us the information. i would have loved to been there with you. im sure all your gear was heavy and i could have help. it is just so great that you got to witness this day in history im so excited about our new president.
Lauren,
Great Job! It was very cool to read all the updates. I actually do feel like I journeyed with you but in real life I would of died from all the walking and getting told to go different ways and then all the stuff you had to carry that is tatally amazing. It seems like alot for 1 Journalist/reporter/Spykamist/Blogger/photographer/Catholic WOW thats alot. I would of helped you carry your equipment except I would of had a hard time keeping up. I am going to show your blog to Fr. Klein he will think its neat. You are blessed to be able to witness this Historical time and to be apart of sharing it with the world hard to describe. Be careful and get some rest when you get back.
Lisa Bejarno