Indeed. We attended the Inauguration on January 21, and we felt quite safe. Depending on whose estimate you read, there were somewhere between 800,000 and 1 million people there. The crowd was generally good natured and well behaved. Not surprisingly, considering the nature of the event, security was very tight. Lots of advance notice about what you could and could not take through the security check points. The security folks (Secret Service, DC Police, NPS Law Enforcement, Military, various other Police units from around the country, etc) were all very polite yet extremely professional.

First aid responders, and other help were stationed throughout the area on the Mall. Signage was good so that you knew were to go, depending on what type of ticket you had. They had installed numerous extra portable cell phone towers, so that we were able to use our phones with few problems, despite the number of people. Overall, I was very impressed with how well the whole thing worked, and how few snafus there were.

The only real hassle we had whole time we were in DC was on the Beltway. A friend who lives in the area picked us up one evening and we got stuck in a big traffic jam due to a wreck on the Beltway. Makes me appreciate the comments people have made about "Carmageddon", as it clearly wouldn't take much of a snow storm to make a huge problem on that road!