By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Not everyone celebrating the inauguration of President Barack Obama on Monday was on the National Mall in Washington. There were “watch parties” around the Philadelphia area, including one in Mount Airy.

The cold and crowd and hassles just didn’t seem worth it to Rhodes Middle school teacher Jennifer Miller. On the other hand, she says, she didn’t want to watch alone.

“It was important to me, first of all to witness it with friends,” Miller says, “and as a social studies teacher, I wanted to witness this so that I could take it back to my class and share with them and get their feelings.”

So Miller joined a group of about dozen people at the 7165 Lounge. Owner Mercer Redcross says he threw the party because he had a hunch more people would be staying local this time around..

“The second time around sometimes you don’t have the emphasis as before,” he says. “I don’t think there is any indication of lack of support.”

And Redcross says he wanted to help the community celebrate together.

“A lot of times people want to physically go places and experience it,” he says. “And sometimes we just want to experience it in our heart.”