WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of people from around the country shivered in line for hours yesterday to visit their representatives in Congress and finally get their hands on a ticket to today's inauguration of Honolulu-born Barack Obama.

Separate lines up to half-a-mile long snaked into the House and Senate buildings, and everyone had to go through security checkpoints just to briefly escape Washington's 30-degree weather, which also saw occasional flakes of snow.

Once protected from the chill, Hawai'i residents offered omiyage to their two senators and two representatives in the form of boxes and boxes of chocolate-covered macadamia nuts, chocolate-covered shortbread cookies and Hawai'i-grown coffee.

Cynthia Orlando, superintendent of Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park, stood in line for 2 1/2 hours to pick up her pair of tickets at Congresswoman Mazie Hirono's office that will get Orlando into today's swearing-in-ceremony.

Orlando left behind a box of ginger cookies from the Big Island.

Some of the omiyage will be re-gifted by the representatives as birthday presents for their Mainland counterparts, or will be served as snacks for the office staff. Abercrombie also plans to keep them on hand to use as examples of Island treats to people in Washington who know little about Hawai'i.

For many Hawai'i people visiting Washington, packing omiyage over the 5,100-mile flight is expected. But few were prepared for the long lines that lasted all day yesterday.

The various entrances to the congressional buildings looked like airport security stations at Christmas time as people had to strip off their coats, remove all metal objects and go through metal detectors.

A group of people trying to leave the House office building asked one District of Columbia police officer if they could exit the building through the same busy entrance they used to enter.

"I wish you would," she said to her partner, who laughed. "I wish you would."

Island people seemed to take the extra security as just one more part of the Washington experience, which includes street vendors selling Obama calendars, ball caps, T-shirts, pennants and even Obama earmuffs.

"It's just incredible," Orlando said. "I was ready for the cold but I was not prepared for the lines."

HAWAI'I PRIDE

The District of Columbia is jammed with thousands of people from the Islands who are unaccustomed to the cold but eager to see a son of Hawai'i and Punahou School graduate sworn in as America's 44th president.

"A native son in the White House," said Kalihi Valley-born Jan Yanehiro, who graduated from Farrington High School in 1966. "We couldn't be prouder."

No one knows what to expect today in Washington — either from the weather or from the logistics of moving what could be up to 4 million people around the district under the tightest security imaginable.

Before today, the largest inaugural crowd ever was the 1.2 million people who witnessed Lyndon Johnson's swearing-in.

For Obama's inauguration, officials of Washington's subway system, The Metro, experimented with shutting down escalators yesterday as one way of controlling human traffic and thousands of people were left to huff and puff their way up the shuttered steps and into the chilly Washington air.

"Cabs are starting to fill up, the buses are full and the Metro's a mess," Orlando said.

Today will be even worse as officials close bridges leading into Washington, D.C., shut down vehicle traffic and warn Metro passengers to wait for one to three hours just to find room aboard a train for trips that normally take 15 to 20 minutes.

Yesterday, people seemed to understand the need for so much security and a congested transportation system.

"It's never been like this," Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, said yesterday from his office in the Longworth House Office Building adjacent to the nation's capitol. "But nobody's pushing or shoving."

At Hirono's office, "we haven't heard anyone complaining," said Susan Kodani, Hirono's deputy chief of staff. "Everyone understands, especially people from Hawai'i."

Hirono's communications assistant, Jacklyn Zimmerman, said, "Everybody is very patient. Everybody is excited."

Count Orlando among the excited.

She worked in Washington during previous Republican and Democratic presidential inaugurations but never bothered to attend any of the ceremonies.

This time, with a son of Hawai'i taking up residency in the White House, Orlando is willing to endure the cold, the crowds and all of the congestion.

"When will I get to experience this again?" she asked. "Yes, it's crazy out there. But it's all so wonderful."