I traveled from California with my family to go to the Inauguration. On Inauguration Day, we got up at 4:00 in the morning. It was so bitter cold and dark, you could barely even see where you were going. When we got to the metro station, pretty much all of the trains were packed, but we managed to squeeze onto one of them. Finally we reached our destination, downtown Washington, D.C. The police gave us horrible directions to the Mall and obviously were not prepared. It was very frustrating. Before we even got to the Mall, we figured out from calling a couple people who were watching it on TV, that the Mall was already packed.
After all that walking, we ended up at the Washington Monument. We were trying to watch it on the Jumbotron (the big TV screen) that they had set up there, but there were so many people in front of us (which included a guy who was wearing a top hat) that it was hard to even see the screen.
But what really matters is that I heard Barack Obama get sworn in as our new president. It was such an amazing experience for me, especially since I'm African American. It's great to know that I was there to see history being made forever!
By Whitney L., California, USA
