WASHINGTON — Four friends from O'ahu each paid at least a couple thousand dollars to witness Barack Obama's inauguration in person but ended up watching the ceremony this morning from the bar of their hotel here.

The women were grateful that U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka provided them with tickets in the "purple" viewing section at the nation's capitol.

But after an hour of walking to the site of the ceremony and being turned away, Sandi Yorong, Anne Rautio, Kathy Mills and Myrna Murdoch joined hundreds of other people with tickets — including many from Hawai'I — who traveled all the way to Washington only to watch it on TV along with millions of other Americans.

Even though they had tickets, they were stopped at the Washington Monument by National Guard troops who said there was no room and nobody else would be admitted.

"Everyone was showing them tickets," Yorong said. "But it didn't matter."

"You had to follow orders," Mills said.

Yorong and her friends turned around and headed back to their hotel through thousands and thousands of people still streaming toward the capitol.

"It just was a mass of humanity and everyone was getting cold," Rautio said. "It was like they were evacuating the city."

Murdoch still believes the trip was worth the expense. And it renewed her faith in people.

"There's this feeling and optimism being here," Murdoch said. "It's inspiring. It was worth every penny to me."

Ben Lowenthal, a lawyer from Peahi, Maui, and five of his friends got stuck on shuttered 3rd Street.

"Even though the maps said it would be open, it was closed," Lowenthal said. "They said it was too crowded."

As they walked down Constitution Avenue, Lowenthal and his friends came upon CNN and National Public Radio crews and watched the ceremony on a televisionmonitor.

"We saw the whole thing through this weird angle from the Canadian Embassy," Lowenthal said. "We could hear the choir warming up over these enormous loud speakers and we got to hear all the speeches. Unfortunately we had to watch it on the monitor."

Still, Lowenthal has no regrets.

"They say this is the biggest crowd in the history of Washington, but for a huge crowd everyone was in good spirits," he said. "No one yelling and everyone was genuinely friendly."

Andrew Agbayani, 19, of 'Aiea set out at 3:45 a.m., walked two miles, and got in a line at 4th and D streets at 4:45 a.m.

But when the gates opened at 7:30 a.m. yesterday, Agbayani and his friend realized they were in a line for the inaugural parade.

"It was pretty hectic down there," he said. "But I don't blame them because it's a real confusing time."

Agbayani went back to his hotel wearing three or four layers of clothes with hand warmers and earmuffs.

For an Island boy, the weather was overwhelming.

"Even though I had everything on," Agbayani said, "it was still cold."

It wasn't just Hawai'I people who were turned back by the cold and the crowds.

Liliana Mireles and her friend Adrian Alexander, who both volunteered for the Obama campaign in their hometown of Austin, Tex., stood in an ever-changing "line" of people and never got close to the security checkpoints before they gave up trying to get in.

"There was no organization whatsoever," Mireles said. "It was pandemonium. It was chaos. If everyone hadn't been in good spirits that would have turned disastrous."

"Nothing was really managed, no one knew where to go," Alexander said. "It wasn't just the cold because we were willing to endure."

When Mireles and Alexander finally decided to give up just before the start of the ceremony, it took them 15 minutes to walk to the end of the line.

"The line had to be a mile-plus behind us," Alexander said.

Steve Wells is a local from Severna Park, Md., and thought he had planned out his family's trip to the capital via train and foot.

But after three hours of standing in line, Wells' mother got nauseous from the crush of people and "we abandoned ship," Wells said.

His wife, 9-year-old son and wife's aunt stayed in line for another hour before abandoning their own ship just as the ceremony began.

"We never even got through the blue gate," said Wells' aunt-in-law, Doris Fox of Portland, Ore. "We could only see it off in the distance."

Advertiser staff writer Kim Fassler contributed to this report.