Click here to view in high definition on Facebook.

Rumors were swirling that the President would not make it to the Eastern Ball until well after 2 a.m., and with an early flight in the morning we decided that we just couldn’t stay up that late and still be functional enough to get ourselves home and back to work.

Just as we were heading out we ran into some friends and were talking maybe forty feet away from the stage that President Obama was due to appear presumably much later in the evening. To our surprise the lights went on, the flags came out, and the next thing we knew we had one of the best seats in the house for his remarks to the attendees. I especially like how the cell phones and cameras sprouted up from the crowd as he took to the stage.

I’ll get some pictures up a little later tonight. I didn’t have my fancy camera with me so I will do the best I can with my point and shoot’s output.

What a day today was!  It’s now nearly 3 a.m. and I need to get some sleep ahead of my flight home tomorrow, but I did want to get the big day’s photo gallery up for you to enjoy.  Click here to see it!

The crowds were overwhelming at times, but it wasn’t too bad considering there were well over a million people crammed onto the Capitol lawn and the Mall..  We did heed the advice of many and got on line at just before 6:00 a.m. which turned out to be a very wise decision.  Once we were inside, it was stunning to see the density of the crowd both on the Capitol lawn and across the way on the Mall increase almost exponentially as we drew closer to the 11 a.m. start time.

One thing the television coverage could not capture was the feeling of the event..  Feelings like experiencing the sound of a million people behind us on the mall singing the Star Spangled Banner in unison, hearing their roaring cheers and applause when President Obama took the oath of office, or seeing what must have been a hundred thousand waving American flags along on the mall.  Every so often I’d turn around and just take a look at a sea of humanity so large it was impossible to see it all within my field of vision.

Tonight I attended one of the official inaugural balls, and we had a relatively up close and personal greeting from the President and Vice President.  Although I did not bring my obnoxiously large camera to the event I did manage to grab some photos and vidoes with my point and shoot.  I’ll post those sometime tomorrow.

Now begins the task of actually getting back to Dupont Circle. This should be interesting .

There’s a lot of excitement in the air! We are standing here with a photographer from Iowa, a student from GW, and another student from Texas.

More updates soon when we get inside.

Soldiers closed the street near where we are staying. It’s going to be a very interesting morning.

Click here to see the full gallery from today!

What a long day today was.. One thing is for certain: there are millions of people in town for this event and they are all going to be congregating in one single place tomorrow. Today was crazy enough with no major events taking place on Capitol Hill, so I can only imagine just how totally insane it’s going to be tomorrow.

The plan for tomorrow is to get up at literally the crack of dawn and walk from where we’re staying in Dupont Circle over to the Capitol lawn. The event does not begin until 11, but with millions of people all going to the same place it won’t be easy to get there.

I’ll try to post from the cell phone during the journey. In the meantime, enjoy some of the photos I took today by clicking here. I was hoping to get some video up tonight of the sights and sounds around Union Station, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.