Photos part 1 of 3

I'm grouping these photos in three posts of five each, to make it easier to upload them. I'll work on the video and hopefully have it up shortly. As usual, click on any photo to see in their glorious full size!

Watch out for the flakes! Maura, Gabe and Melissa on the Metro. We arrived at the East Falls Church station around 6:20AM, and to our surprise there were still a few spaces left in the parking lot. We entered the platform and the first train pulled in, so absolutely full of people that nobody could get on.

An empty train pulled in from the other direction, and Maura decided to jump aboard to the end of the line, just four stops away. It turned out to be a good idea, because we had seats for what turned out to be nearly a two-hour train ride into DC.

By the time we went through East Falls Church again, the train was fully packed and nobody else could board. It was a smart decision on Maura's part.

A woman on the train was sporting a Michelle button.

At 8:30 we were in the Federal Triangle, waiting to clear security to get onto the parade route.

At about 10AM we cleared the metal detectors and the TSA workers, shown here checking bags. The ground and fences outside were littered with small flags because they didn't allow sticks into the secure area. Many people simply stripped the flags off the sticks and kept them to wave during the parade.