Live Blogging the Inauguration at LegoLand

It's truly a red-letter day here at LegoLand in sunny Carlsbad, California. In contrast to the million-plus celebrants in Washington DC, there are just five people here: two tourists from Finland, a guy selling ice cream from a little cart, Trisha Hightower, the park's Vice President in Charge of Everything Yellow, and this intrepid reporter, who couldn't get a ticket to the real thing. Still, the atmosphere is electric, and I'm not just talking about the twinkly purple lights on Fairy Island. Trisha says the last time she remembers so much excitement here at LegoLand was when an eight-year-old from Toledo, Ohio stomped the dome of the Taj Mahal after discovering the park had sold out of Strawberry Dora the ExploraPops.

The reason for all the furor? LegoLand is staging an exact replica of Barack Obama's inauguration except at a scale of half an inch to five hundred feet. In contrast to the hundred thousand staffers at work in our nation's capitol, Mike Stansfield is running the entire show. As the inauguration progresses, Mike will move the blocky little figures on and off the tiny yellow dais while solemnly voicing what he guesses are the participants' words. Just judging from his National Anthem, I'm thinking Mike's never going to be an impressionist.

You could have heard a pin drop when Mike wheeled in a tiny red Dick Cheney, but seeing as how the 100,000 figures are made entirely of plastic, it's been pretty quiet anyway. They reacted similarly when Mike's opening prayer went, "Blah blah Jesus, blah blah God, this is Rick Warren OUT!"

I'll keep you posted with more updates as the day progresses. Yes, it's not quite as exciting as the real thing, without the celebrities or fireworks or marching bands, but I'll only be fighting four people to the exit when the whole thing wraps up, and I'll bet none of those fancy-asses in DC paid $42 for a motel room that included an all-you-can-eat waffle bar.