SOHH ON THE SCENE

I was one of the millions of people that flooded into our nation's capital this week for Barack Obama's inauguration.

I caught a 10am train out of New York's Penn Station on Monday morning. When I arrived at Union Station the magnitude of the situation really set in for me. The entire train station was packed with people. There were big organized groups wearing matching hats, families, solo travelers like myself and United States soldiers. Everyone was excited. Everyone was hopeful.

Every restaurant on the main level of the station was full and the escalator down to the food court was blocked off, presumably due to over crowding.

I ditched my plan to pick up food and headed towards the metro station. As I descended the escalator, my eyes met well over hundred people all of whom were trying to buy metro tickets. Luckily, each machine had an agent standing buy to help expedite the process and I was able to get through the line in about a half hour.

The next morning my friends and I woke up around 7:30am, bundled up and headed out to the National Mall. We were armed with water, sandwiches and pre-purchased metro cards. We were ready to witness history. Over the next few hours I walked (a lot), nearly froze, huddled up with strangers, laughed and even shed a few tears. This was my Inauguration experience.