Washington, D.C.: Day 5

Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!  Here come all those pictures of the Capitol I said you could expect.  On our last day I made reservations for us to get a tour of the Capitol.  We hopped on the metro not far from our hotel and learned there are different rates depending on the time of day, but this was also a day we ran across the NICEST people.  Case in point #1: the metro attendant who let us through the gate without paying because we didn’t have enough cash on us and CLEARLY (with our backpack and camera) looked like tourists.

 
By the way, the walk from the front of the Capitol around to the back is pretty lengthy!  The city was DEAD for a Wednesday when Congress isn’t in session.  It was actually pretty crazy compared to the weekend traffic!  See: There’s No One There!

We didn’t have our trusty fellow photographers so we improvised with my camera’s swivel screen.  So handy but total cheese photo! We headed underneath the Capitol entrance to the Visitor Center and came across our second nice person.  The security to get into the Visitor Center is pretty hefty – metal detectors, scanning machines, no food or drink.  We had some granola bars in our bag.  It was the only snacks we had with us for the day.  The security guard saw them in the scanner.

Guard: Do you need this food for a medical reason?
Bill: No. (oblivious to what the guard was insinuating)
Guard (a little more pointedly): Do you need this food for any MEDICAL PURPOSES?
Bill: Oh, yeah, sure.
Guard: Okay then I can allow you to bring these in.

And just like that, we weren’t going to go hungry thanks to a guard who realized our granola bars did not pose a threat to national security.

The Visitor Center itself was beautiful yet not crowded.  It turns out even though I was SUPER impressed that I had the forethought to make reservations for a tour in advance, we didn’t really need them.  (I still felt special to say I had a reservation for a tour of the capitol.) So we got our visitors sticker and got in line.  After a video in a quaint theater, we were off to meet our guide, get our headsets and make our way through the building.

So I won’t lie – I took TONS of pictures, but I’m not going to give you the walking tour so here are a couple.  The photo above is of the original US Supreme Court Chambers.  And I guess this is going to have to do for seeing the Supreme Court in DC for me because, as luck would have it, the exterior of the SCOTUS, you guessed it, is UNDER CONSTRUCTION and covered in scaffolding.  GRRRR.

After a few more tight hallways, some stairs and a few beautiful chandeliers, we got to the rotunda! This was a massive image overload for me and my camera!

Wanna see how close I can get?

How’s that for ya?!!! Yeah, I about fell over!

We didn’t exactly get full reign of the room so this is as good as it got for this painting.  But after visiting a few other historical rooms including Statutory Hall where the House of Representatives met for about 50 years, the tour was over.  Quite abruptly too.  I wanted MORE!

Our next option: take a tunnel from the Visitor Center to the Library of Congress (below).  Sounds like a pretty decent idea.  The actual library was closed off to visitors so we stuck to this room, sat on a bench for a little bit and headed on our way.

Then we were headed to lunch – Hard Rock sounded good but it was going to be a long walk.  It might be more like dinner. 

Along the way, we came across the Newseum.  I’ve been wanting to visit this building since I first heard about it’s construction.  And here I was standing in front of it… refusing to pay $21.95 per person to basically go to work on vacation. LOL  Should have tried to get press passes.  (I guess the curators have never seen a journalist’s paycheck.)

They don’t allow photos in the National Archives, so you’ll just have to take my word that we saw the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. 

We also headed into the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History and found full sized mounted LARGE animals (an elephant, giraffe, dinosaurs, hippo, large cats, etc). It also had some dinosaur bones, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen in person before.

Check out that beauty!  The Hope Diamond.  I was actually impressed with the photos I got from behind the glass as this puppy rotated on it’s lazy susan. 

On our way back from lunch/dinner at Hard Rock (sorry, only two photos taken there, but you know how they look on the inside, right?), we passed by the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building.  Very sterile looking.  All of the doors were blocked off with armed guards at the driveway letting one car thought at a time.  At least the guards smiled and said hello though. 

And to wrap up the day, we visited the Smithsonian Museum of American History.  I remember seeing this when we were here for band in 1997 but it was MUCH different now.  I remember it being crammed full of displays, often too much to look at.  Now it’s very open and areas are organized by topic or eras.  Very easy to walk through.  Though I found it odd that the Scarecrow’s hat and boots were on a completely different floor than Dorothy’s ruby’s slippers. They aren’t as beautiful as you’d imagine either.

Work followed me to the museum… came across a 1930’s CBS microphone that Franklin D. Roosevelt used during his radio addresses. 

And Kermie!  I remember seeing Oscar the Grouch the last time I was here but couldn’t find him.  Instead, this is one of Jim Henson’s Kermit The Frog puppets.  I just want to snuggle him.

And before we knew it, it was time to hop back on the metro and head back to the hotel.  I was feeling totally beat by now and was in need of some medicine.  Our time in DC was coming to a close… just as my throat was closing up in pain.  I had done it though.WE had done it! I’m pretty sure we saw everything we hoped to see with the exception of the Holocaust Museum (but I just wasn’t emotionally ready for that one!) and we did just about everything we intended to.  It’s time to head home to see the kiddos … and whether Busha and Dzia Dzia survived!