Saturday was the "rainy" day for our trip. The other days were forecasted to be hot and humid (in the upper 80s and 90s). Dan had written to Elizabeth Warren's office and got us Capitol tour tickets for Saturday. Our plan for the rest of the day was to do "indoor" tours because of the weather forecast.
So we got up, had breakfast, and took the Metro to the Capitol. Two side notes--1) Ed, Dan, and I are ones who do not mind the "free" continental breakfast. We are not big breakfast eaters and we always felt that we could eat a decent breakfast and that would hold us to dinner (maybe with some snack in between if needed). And that is what Dan and I did here as well. It's the small things like this where we are similar that sure makes traveling easy. 2) Dan was the master of the Metro. By later in the 2nd day, I was understanding it as well. But Dan doesn't even have to think about it. He was the one that navigated the T to Logan and then the Metro in DC to our hotel. In fact, when I kept looking at the map and reading the signs, we would laugh at me because it just came natural to him.
Okay, back to our trip. We arrived at the Capitol building well before our scheduled tour. We walked around outside and I was most impressed, and appreciative, that Dan agreed to pose in front of the Capitol and let some random stranger take our picture. This is one of my favorite photos of the entire trip!
Since we toured on Saturday, the House and Senate was not in session but we did get to see the typical Capitol Tour. We also spent some time in the Visitor Center which had small models of the Capitol and Capitol Hill and how it changed and expanded over the years. We found that to be very interesting.
From the Capitol we took the tunnel to the Library of Congress, Thomas Jefferson Building. We were both quite impressed with the architecture. I mean, we've seen this type of architecture in Italy, but to see it here in the US, is something else. While we viewed the Main Reading Room, we recalled scenes from the movie National Treasure where they searched this room for a document.
Thankfully while in the Capitol and Library of Congress we missed a downpour. As it drizzled, we walked over to the Supreme Court but then it started to rain more so we walked (swiftly) over to Union Station where we planned to grab a late lunch and sit out the rain. That planned worked out perfectly and by the time we finished our lunch it had stopped raining and we walked over to The National Archives.
The National Archives was one of the other few things on our list of things to do. We then spent several hours there and thoroughly enjoyed our time in particular viewing the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Between the Capitol and the National Archives, it really brought back the history of our country.
One of the other things I had on my list that I really wanted to do was see the monuments at night. So Dan and I decided to head back to our hotel, rest up since our feet were getting sore/tired, and then we would head out later in the evening to grab something to eat and view the monuments at night.
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| Capitol Dome |
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| Library of Congress - Jefferson Building - Main Reading Room |
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| Supreme Court |
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| Union Station |
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