How cold was it?

According to what people were saying, the temperature topped out at 33 degrees. But with the wind chill, it felt as cold as 5 degrees. And when you're out in the breeze for more than eight hours, it feels even worse.

The ground was littered with the plastic wrappers from chemical hand warmers. People brought blankets (I didn't know they could) and food (I really didn't know that!), so we used a special Inaugural edition of the Washington Post as seats on the metal bleachers, and we feasted upon Tic-Tacs most of the day. The two food vendors nearby had lines that were at least an hour long, and they ran out of hot chocolate and coffee by noon.

These three photos probably tell the story of the cold more accurately:

8:30 AM


11:30 AM


3:00 PM
About a half hour after the President walked by and 80% of the spectators left, we were able to buy a hot dog at one vendor. The food gave us just enough energy to watch about 40 more minutes of the parade, but we called it a day at about 5:30.