Actually, in the section we were sitting in, the only glimpse of Obama we were supposed to get was through car windows. That’s right, after waiting in the cold for eight hours, the Obamas drove past us slowly in a limo. And we were on the Michelle side.

Frustrated and cold, we immediately started running through the crowds along the side of the parade route. (Amazing we didn’t get shot by the hundreds of snipers on the surrounding rooftops.) We finally ran ahead of the car and found a spot in the front row on the last stretch of the parade route. That’s where he got out of his car.

The famous Rosa Parks bus:

Blocking our view was the Utah highway patrol, the police unit assigned to our section of the parade route. The guys were very friendly, but some didn’t look too please during the inauguration speech.

Our bleacher section was eerily empty. All the other bleachers, and pretty much every single spot in DC that day was chock-full of people. But not ours. Nobody went to sit there, even though it was uncomfortably crowded everywhere else. Strange group-think, perhaps?