What beautiful pictures on a significant day. I have been watching the inauguration on TV. Whatever our political views, we must all be glad for this milestone in our country's history and send good wishes to our new president for success in meeting the daunting challenges we face.

Claire...Beautiful pictures taken on a beautiful day! Thank you.

sooey

Yes, this is a great day. I can't remember feeling this good in January for a really long time.
Thanks, Claire!

Claire,
Really stunning shots. I love the warm light on the snow in the second one....it does feel hopeful!
Thanks for posting your photography, once again!

Emily

Gorgeous! And I share your feelings today. If you have a moment and you haven't already seen it, check out Pete Seeger's performance (with his grandson Tao and Bruce Springsteen) of This Land is Your Land at the pre-inauguration festivities. He is one of my heroes, and I'm sure he is glad to have lived to see this day. It was a very moving performance, especially if you are familiar with his life work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg0wiOHc9tI

Hi Kids,

Well, it's the day after and I still feel GREAT! Another wonderul day. *sigh*

sooey
who is exhausted from all that dancing last night...

Thanks for the link, paigect, I missed the performance and figured I'd have to wait until the DVD came out. I forgot about how everything shows up on YouTube.

I'm a long-time admirer of Pete Seeger too, and have been a member of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater organization for years. The member sails were a great experience (no, Pete Seeger wasn't on the boat and I never met him).

Did you know that there's a movement to nominate Pete Seeger for a Nobel Peace Prize? Sounds good to me.

sooey: I'm afraid I did more shoveling than dancing yesterday.

Speaking about the speed of the internet, I read yesterday about how Obama used a shaka hand sign to acknowledge his high school band. I'd never heard of this, so of course I googled it. The Wikipedia entry for "Shaka sign" had already been updated to include Obama's use of it. I just checked again, and it now includes a photo as well (see the footnote).

Claire

paigect,
that video brought tears to my eyes! Thanks for posting the link.
Yep, still feeling good, the day after...!

Emily

Glad you liked it, Claire and Emily. I watched it twice and bawled through the whole thing! I raised my son on Pete's music (until he turned 6 and was suddenly too cool). When we lived in Virginia for 2 years, my best friend called and told me she just got us tickets to see Pete sing at a small gathering somewhere near Katonah for that weekend. I drove all the way up from Charlottesville with my son for that!

Claire, thanks for the links!

It's really interesting watching Obama begin his work. And I have to say I am loving all of the pictures of him and his family. His girls are too cute.

Claire, what beautiful photos! thanks for posting them. They really captured the spirit and hope of that day.

Molie

I just got an email containing a link to:

"Using the same NASA technology that Mars rovers routinely use to image the Red Planet, photographer David Bergman created an unprecedented 1,474 megapixel panoramic photo of President Obama's inauguration. (For comparison, an ordinary digital photo contains less than 10 megapixels.) Click on the image below to pan around the rotunda and zoom in on some of the two million people. The detail is amazing. You can see Hilary Clinton's white earrings, Barbara Bush's fuzzy black earmuffs, the word "Obama" stitched on spectators' winter hats, Yo-Yo Ma taking a picture with his iPhone, and much more:"

{{gwi:1056700}}

panoramic interactive photo of the Inauguration

With a dial-up connection, I won't even try to load this, but it looks like a great photo.

Claire

That 3d technology that created this photo is truly amazing.

I feel like I've been jettisoned into a wonderful alternate universe since Jan 20th. Just hoping the economic/infrastructure package passes the Senate so we may have some hope of repairing the economy before it's too late.

Beautiful sunrise photos! I hadn't seen them until now.

Ugh. I just hope we all survive the next 4 years.

Wow! That photo was really something. If you knew someone who was there, you could probably pick them out, even if they were in the back row! Thanks for posting that, Claire.
You ought to find a friend with cable connection, so you can take a look...
Emily