OBAMA DAY - in pictures

The new dawn - a Dad's view

The new dawn - a Mom's view

Katy and Jason heading to the Mall

Our view down to the Capitol

And back the other way

Where MLK dreamt

On the Lincoln steps

First Mom

Look who's not celebrating

The old and the new

Musical interlude

The orator in his bulletproof pulpit

Daddy J and Kevin Connolly

The President heads for home

Did we mention the cold? That's a frozen Potomac

Obama cupcakes

OBAMA DAY - part II

      And how! Our view back to the Capitol 

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

President Obama! 

(That's Katy, Jason and Sophie in the orange jacket in the foreground)

So PEBO did it. He survived inauguration and will go to bed tonight as the first African-American leader of the USA provided he makes it through the last few inaugural balls he still has to tick off. And Louis did it too. He also survived inauguration despite the sub zero temperatures although it was touch and go at one point when the emotion of the occasion threatened to overcome surely the crowd's youngest newspup. For the most part though Louis was all smiles and delighted to be able to claim his place in history as part of the largest inauguration crowd ever at an estimated 1.8 million. 

With space on the Mall already at a premium by 8am we reckon we did well to find ourselves a spot on surely the most revered of the Mall's many presidential monuments, the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Where better to watch - okay, to listen to - Barack Hussein Obama get sworn in as president than a monument to the man who ended slavery in a country built on the blood of the new president's forefathers? That we were some two miles from the scene of the action mattered not a jot when so much history was our's for the taking. 

Apart from The Moment of the day - when President Obama took the oath of office, my personal Mom highlight had to be when the waiting crowd on the Lincoln steps cheered Louis after I lifted him up for a better view of the seething mass of humanity stretching back to the Capitol. We'll have to see if his smiling little mug winds up in tomorrow's Washington Post because he was snapped by one of their photographers - as well as by many others. 

We might not be American, but given the country's sway over the rest of the world, it was impossible not to be awed by what one man achieved today. It's strange - and exciting - to think what a difference that man could make to my little boy's life. And to think, Louis will always be able to say that he was there. 20.01.09. Quite a day. 

OBAMA DAY - by Daddy J

39, 41 and 42 applaud 44-to-be and family

The new prez tells it like it is

Hasta la vista W

Quite a day - it felt bigger than the night in Chicago somehow, I guess because in a nation of laws the whole deal is now legally sealed. But there was more to it than that. Us radio guys are used to being kept in the basement somewhere, this time we had a ringside seat on the Capitol steps, just 50m or so from the new president. Adding to the sense of occasion were the superstars of US politics gathered around him - a lonely looking Senator McCain, the Clintons, the whole Bush clan from George H. via W to the twins, Cheney looking frail in a wheelchair, Jimmy Carter and his wife (surely the lowest profile first lady ever). 

The focus of all the media coverage is rightly on the whole first-democratically-elected-minority-leader-on-the-planet-and-in-this-so-recently-segregated-country-to-boot thing and the attendant popular adulation, but the bit I cant get over is that great democratic moment when a whole governing philosophy is swept away and replaced with another just cos some guy says about 50 words with his hand on a book. For once I had the presence of mind to take a camera and by far my favorite photo is the one of Bush's helicopter taking a final sweep past the Washington monument over the jubilant masses. Reagan's chief of staff told us in an interview recently that it was at that point in 1988 that he first saw his great leader cry.

Did I mention how cold it was?

OBAMA DAY - part I

Inauguration Eve: Lafayette Square

The build up 

It's hard to convey the sense of excitement in a city that for the first time since we arrived really seems to be living up to its Chocolate City epithet. Even yesterday, walking home from downtown via the White House, the crowds were insane. DC was already one big street party. Check out this family, who had gathered here from all over the US to be part of history. That's Louis on the parade route outside the back of the White House. We'll be lucky to get within a mile of that spot today. 

It's a little after 9am and we're just leaving to meet Katy, Jason and Sophie (who is celebrating her half-birthday day) to try and claim a little piece of turf on the Mall from which to watch the swearing in. It's minus alot out there - I figure it's actually best not to know plus fahrenheit gets confusing below 32. With the wind chill the temperature sounds pretty frightening. I'd better go bundle up Louis. Daddy J has been on the Capitol steps since before dawn so he's already one big icicle. He'll be guest blogging later for sure. 

Martin Luther King day

            Louis watching Lisa at work with her roller 

 Louis snoozing after his painting session 

This inauguration lark isn't all rock star glamour and glittery parties. (If only.) In an effort to keep it real, PEBO dedicated Martin Luther King day, a federal holiday and the eve of his inauguration, a day of community service. Although living here for six months only makes DC our temporary community, Louis and I still rolled up our sleeves and got stuck in at an elementary school in the very real section of southeast Washington known as Congress Heights. Okay, so actually we just went along for the ride to accompany Lisa and her son Alex, who in turn were accompanying Lisa's cousin Zach, an Obamaite who took last semester off school to work on the election campaign but we still got stuck in. 

Turned out the school in question was the fittingly named Martin Luther King Jr Elementary. (The comedian Chris Rock reckons you can tell you're in a dodgy bit of town when roads and buildings are named after MLK or Malcolm X.) Its hallway needed a lick of paint so, like PEBO, we wielded a paintbrush and roller and got to work. Louis watched - for a bit, until he got bored and I strapped him into the baby carrier until he got bored of that too and I had to feed him. He helped too - sticking his hand in the paint tin. So much for his organic diet. What with that and yesterday's outdoor rock concert in freezing temperatures I'm clearly just trying to see how many parenting no-nos I can clock up in 48 hours. Something tells me braving tomorrow's 1 million-plus inauguration crowd for hours on end will complete my hat-trick of what-not-to-dos with a small baby. Oh well. Even if it's downhill from here at least he can't complain that life's boring.