Distinguished guest at Canadian embassy

So you think you've got problems with airport security?

When Scott Ackles, president of the Calgary Stampeders football club, toted the famed Grey Cup to Canada's Washington embassy for the celebration of Barack Obama's inauguration, he knew there could be trouble.

The cup, a huge gleaming silver trophy, was encased in the kind of metal box that would handily house a suitcase bomb. And taking it to Washington in the tightest security conditions since 9/11 might look a tad suspicious.

"Customs asked what I had here, and I had to go into a special search area," said Ackles, attending the embassy's tailgate party. "I got worried when two or three customs people came in."

But they weren't hunting for terrorists, Ackles found to his relief.

"They said, 'we don't want to inspect the merchandise. We just want to have our pictures taken with the cup.'"

The exercise attracted another traveller, Canadian rocker Bryan Adams: "he was like a kid in a candy shop," said Ackles. "He told me about his early rugby career." No surprise, then, if Adams appears onstage when 2008 winner Calgary hosts the Grey Cup this year.

- Olivia Ward

Showtime

Brace for the frenzy as Obama arrives in seconds. We just received full text of his address — will post it immediately following the 17-minute speech.

— Mitch Potter

(Editor's update: Read the speech here.)

Mere minutes

So, Dustin Hoffman just strolled to his seat. Then a huge cheer as Oprah arrives. Tom Hanks next, slipping in quietly, wearing a solemn expression.

Cell coverage now wonky. Time to take our seats.

— Mitch Potter

Stars align

Much excitement here in Section 8 as big names arrive.

Caroline Kennedy is a few rows ahead of us, all smiles under a red knit toque with side flaps.

Samuel Jackson is a few seats over — and Jamie Lee Curtis is bopping all over the place with camera in hand, trying to capture every moment for digital posterity.

— Mitch Potter

In the crowd

People from around the world here. Then, finally, we meet Laura Kay-Roth, 45, an actual local who made her way to the Capitol from the leafy suburb of Silver Spring, Md.

"I was bound and determined to be here. It matters so much on multiple levels. To know that the Bush era will be over in a few minutes comforts me. To know that Barack Obama cares about the wealth gap in America is even more comforting."

Kay-Roth smiled sadly when asked why more of her fellow suburbanites aren't here.

"Many of them are terrified, they're afraid to walk out the door during the inauguration. The crowds, the threat of terror. It is kind of pathetic but that's how they feel."

— Mitch Potter

Cold, but breathtaking

Crisp and clear here. Bloody cold but none complaining.

Crowd is a breathtaking sight, stretching to the Washington Monument and beyond.

Up front we are still in the shadow of the Capitol dome but a few minutes from now the rays should reach us.

— Mitch Potter

At long last

Left my little apartment at 4:30 a.m. and arrived just seconds ago at the Toronto Star's seat. Took the Metro from Rosslyn to Capitol South — sardine squeeze from the get-go, even at that hour.

Stunned to report how near to history we will be — just 30 metres from Obama's podium, which is surrounded by 21 bulletproof glass panels.

If you see the white TV tower in front of the podium, I'm just to the right of it and a few seats back.

Buzz here is Oprah Winfrey will be arriving shortly, sitting in our section.

Will attempt updates — if the network doesn't overload watch this space for more.

— Mitch Potter

Human traffic in D.C.

Getting out of yesterday's concert took nearly as long as the show itself for tens of thousands of us — a foretaste of tomorrow, when four times as many people will be on foot for the moment of Obama's midday swearing-in ceremony and afternoon parade. We have only ourselves to blame, really, for uncleverly choosing the 17th St. exit that just happens to go right past the White House, where a phalanx of security officials held the masses in place so that various motorcades could come and go along Pennsylvania Ave.

In a different context, so large a crowd standing in the cold and going nowhere could spell trouble. You might worry, especially for small children, babies in strollers and the elderly in so volatile a situation. But it just isn't like that in Obamaland. The 90-minute human traffic jam was a time for patient conversation and the sharing of body heat.

Midway through the jam another hazard emerged as this sea of mild-mannered Obama-backers flowed into a small group of placard-carrying protesters who were waving signs against both Obama and gay rights. Though the crowd outnumbered the protesters by ratios of thousands to one, it simply turned the other cheek and kept going.

- Mitch Potter

A million little pieces (of history)

Souvenirs anyone?

From the moment you arrive at Washington's Reagan National Airport, they're waiting for you. Shops selling Barack Obama memorabilia, inaugural souvenirs, gifts and gadgets, all aimed at those hoping to take home their own little piece of presidential history.

Once you're in the city, the choices multiply, as well as the stalls and vendors working the street around the Capital area where the swearing-in ceremony will take place.

For sports fans seeking a T-shirt that says it all, there's a buffed Obama in boxing trunks standing over a prone John McCain, with the legend, "the new champ."

Or something more subtle: Obama in basketball gear - for his favourite game - with a caption reading "a great leap for mankind." (Sorry Canadians, no hockey.)

"Business isn't bad, but I guess it'll heat up in the next day or so," said Sonny, a tall stall-keeper muffled in a heavy winter coat against the cutting wind on Pennsylvania Avenue. As he spoke, two giggling teenagers grabbed identical red, white and blue inaugural ties for their boyfriends back home in New Jersey.

"I don't think he'll wear it," admitted Jamila Parson, "but I'll bet he hangs it on the wall."

For the more conservative, there's also a "family values" poster, featuring the new First Family in a smiling, homelike pose. And for civil rights advocates, another of Obama standing next to the late Martin Luther King, with the banner, "I'm in the Dream."

The religious have their chance too, in a poster with a verse from the Bible's Judges 4-6, on the summoning of "Barak the son of Abinoam" to march on Mt. Tabor with 10,000 men.

"It doesn't matter what you get," said Ella Janek of Philadelphia, fingering through the hundreds of Obama inaugural buttons. "It's a bit of the magic, isn't it?"

It matters to some: as the wind picked up and the temperature fell to freezing, the best-seller of the day was the Obama wool knit hat.

- Olivia Ward

Bono wins ...

... The prize for the first to drop a political grenade into the proceedings with a nod to the Palestinian struggle. Obama appeared to hold a poker face through it all.

- Mitch Potter