These photos are from a three hour walking tour of the National Mall area less than 24 hours before the inauguraiton of Barrack Obama as the 44th president of the United States. It began with a brief metro ride that led to a crowd gathered outside a cordoned off area, hoping to catch a glimpse of the president-elect as he got in his car.

A quick survey of the area surrounding the Washington Monument and the mall area revealed a buzz of energy and excitement, even though the amount of people walking around was a mere fraction of those that would be in attendance on Tuesday. The term “palpable energy” to describe was was floating in the air is a hackeneyed journalistic expression trotted out for events such as these. It seems the MSM has gone out of its way to overuse that phrase throughout Obama’s ascent to the presidency.

But it was the same buzz that one could feel walking around Denver during the Democratic National Convention. It was the electricity of mostly like minded people (the protesters in the slidehow above being one of the rare exceptions) gathering around a hugely sympblic event of epic generational proportions.

In many people’s minds, the slate wipes clean on Tuesday.