Watching History

Last Saturday we got the chance to see Obama (again!) as his train from Philadelphia to DC made a stop in Wilmington to "pick up" Joe Biden and his family. It was pretty amazing and I feel really fortunate that we were able to do this. It's not often that you get to see a President of the United States, especially as part of the Inaugural celebrations. Add to that, with the energy and excitement about Barack Obama's election and his place in history, it was a very happy crowd for sure.
Best of all, Delaware pulled through for us again with the opportunity to participate in an incredibly historic event, but without all the madness and enormous crowds of major metropolitian areas, with a decently close spot in the crowd and a good view, while only having to walk 4 or so blocks from the parking lot to the event, and having to arrive only a measly 1 1/2 hours early. Hooray for being a small-pond!

The event started with a short program including a local childrens' singing/dancing group, then the Mayor of Wilmington spoke, the Governor-elect of Delaware, and some Amtrak official introduced Joe Biden (since ol' Joe has been commuting to DC via Amtrak for the last 30 years or whatever). And after Joe Biden spoke, Obama arrived with his wife (and girls, though they stayed on the train thanks to the cold). Obama gave a short speech with all the good stuff and giving a shout-out to all the things that Delawarians love, like Blue Hens and Blue Rocks and the historical convienence of being so close to Philadelphia that during the Constitutional Convention in 1787 it was easy for Ceaser Rodney to ride his horse home and get the state legislature to ratify the Consitution before any other state--phew! (As they say, "It's good to be first.")

the view of the stage and Obama from our spot in the crowd

We took only Max (and left the girls with sitters since I wasn't sure how they'd handle the cold) and went with our friend Jenn and her son Elliott. Adam also brought four of the Boy Scouts from the earlier night's campout.

Jenn buying some pins
crowds and vendors with Inaugural momentos

And, when I saw the pictures of yesterday's event on the Washington Mall with its 750,000 people, I was even more glad that we got to have this chance. Yeah, we didn't have the added bonus of seeing Bono or Beyonce perform, but probably 725,000 of the people at the event didn't actually see them either.