Sign seen at President Obama's Trip to Canada:

Yes Oui Canada!

Joanne C, San Francisco, CA submission:

I liked this little snippet from today's Willie Brown's weekly article in the Chronicle:

"The other night I got into a cab and the driver said to me, "Hey, I saw you at the inauguration. I was watching it on TV. You were too far away, but did you see Bush lean over and say something to Obama just befoe Obama took the oath?" I said: "No." "Yeah, but I did," the cabbie said, "Bush leaned over and said, 'Barack, it ain't over until the fat lady sings.'"And did you see what Obama did? He smiled and said, 'Hit it, Aretha.'"

Robert T., Alexandria, VA:

Speaking of the helicopter leaving the Capitol, you know that your sister Ciel and I were on the Mall for the Inauguration. It was very cold but we were warmed by the tight-fitting, joyful and wise-cracking crowd gathered around the refreshment tent waiting to get hot chocolate. (We must have waited for over an hour but gave up when the ceremonies began.)

We saw everything on one of the Jumbotron screens. We cheered with the crowd and murmured our boos at deserving moments, and jumped for joy when the oath was completed. We stayed to hear the wonderful benediction and then moved to the African Museum to warm up and take in the stunning show. We discovered on our arrival at the Museum that a large TV screen had been set up in the ground floor lobby so we lingered to watch the Obama's escort the Bushes to the helicopter. As the chopper rose into the sky, someone shouted they could see it through the Museum's plateglass windows and the crowd moved as one to the window wall to cheer and wave our adieus.

I think we were all a little astonished at our unity. A fine moment and memory.

Marie M., Manchester, NH:

A sign on a fence in my mainly Republican neighborhood for the past 2 months had a countdown of days before Obama's inauguration but today the sign said "Our long national nightmare is finally over".

John F., New York, New York:

I watched the historic moment with my son, then participated in a program at Medgar Evers College (where I teach), with students, faculty and community.
What a country, what a President!
It is an emotional time, but it hasn't fullyregistered yet.

Eric M, South San Francisco, CA:

- jr got the text ms. that the networks called an obama win. i didn't want to hear anything until at least 11pm pt, lest go through bush gore again. mrs m came home, pbs was on, and we heard the mccain concession speech. i was already reading lincoln's second inagural speech and working on a homily on amos, let justice flow like the rivers, for the following sunday. we heard mccain's speech. i sang the negro national anthem, danced with my wife, drank knob creek bourbon, and sang 'when the saints come marching in'. my neighborhood, pro mccain, pro prop 8, was silent, dark, with lights going out all over. and prop 8 won, handily.

Jill J., Sunnyvale, CA:

So our stories are not nearly as cool as some of those listed, but we are as elated as everyone else.

On election night Sam and I were so exciting at the prospect of having a brilliant, articulate, kind, qualified young family man as president that we celebrated with Chinese food and champagne. We laughed, we cried, we got chills.

On inauguration morning Sam stayed home from work and sent me IMs throughout the day on what was happening. He was transfixed to the television soaking up every speech, song, prayer…etc.

For the first time in many, many years we are so proud of our president, of the hope he brings to our troubled economy and the respect he brings to America from other countries. And if he unites us all as one, all the better.

This reminds me of the same coming together of our country that we saw with 9/11. But this time it’s something to truly celebrate.