MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
So, Robert, 9-year-old Lauren Kanabel there has a dream, a girl president elected in 2016.
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
A girl president. Well, if that happens, you can be pretty sure that she will have an inaugural parade. Inauguration Day has featured a parade of one kind or another since the days of George Washington, and today was no exception. NPR's Brian Naylor is on Pennsylvania Avenue where the procession is making its way from the Capitol to the White House. Brian, describe the scene. How is the parade going?
BRIAN NAYLOR, BYLINE: Well, it's going well. It's a lot of fun, actually. There's lots of different bands from lots of different states. The inaugural theme is our people, our future, and so there have been - there is just an incredible diversity of bands. There have been bands from Hawaii and President Obama's school where he attended in Honolulu, the Punahou School. They went by, and the president did one of those little hang loose signs to them. So the whole family is there waving along with the Bidens, and everybody is having a great time.
SIEGEL: And how did the president make his way from the Capitol to the White House?
NAYLOR: Well, there was a long parade of limousines, as you might expect. And not once but twice, the president and Mrs. Obama stepped out of theirs and walked alongside for awhile around the Commerce Department building for those familiar in Washington and the FBI, sort of part of the federal bureaucracy, the buildings downtown. They waved to the crowd, and then they stepped out once again on Pennsylvania Avenue right in front of the White House. Crowds, you know, not an empty spot on the sidewalk. People leaning off of the railings of tall buildings and shouting Obama, Obama and cheering and having a great time.
SIEGEL: So their reaction is very enthusiastic, you're saying?
NAYLOR: Yeah. There's no - there are no - I haven't seen any signs of protests at all. People are just - are very happy to be part of this historic day, the second inauguration of President Obama. The weather held up. It's been a quite lovely afternoon.
SIEGEL: Oh, thank you, Brian.
NAYLOR: Thank you, Robert.
SIEGEL: That's NPR's Brian Naylor out on Pennsylvania Avenue watching the inaugural parade through Washington.