Four years ago I trudged down to The Mall and stood in the cold to see Barack Obama get sworn in as President of the United States of America. This time around I avoided The Mall and checked out the Inaugural Parade instead. I still ended up waiting outside in the cold but it wasn’t that bad.

Read on for lots of photos from the parade route.

After carefully considering all of my transportation options I decided to take a gamble on The Metro and for the most part it was a good choice. The station was empty as well and there were plenty of seats on the train I took into the city. There were some delays due to trains arriving and departing stations but the ride was smoother than my daily commute to and from work.

I arrived at Union Station where my plan was to watch the swearing in on TV before heading to the parade route. I first tried the Dubliner but it was still packed from the Morning Joe live shoot earlier. I then noticed Kelly’s Irish Times was completely empty save for a group of NoMa residents who didn’t think it was too early to start drinking.

After the swearing-in I high tailed it to the Media entrance where I had to swim past the crowds around the Orange Gate. Crowds along the route were big but not massive. By the time the parade finally started it grew to four to five people deep. Spirits were good and there were lots of waiving once the President and Vice President rode by.

 

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.