Washington DC, part 2

Thursday was my last full day and I wanted to make the most of it!  After Matt and I had breakfast I left straight from the restaurant and walked to the White House visitor's center.  It wasn't a huge visitor's center, but it had a lot of interesting displays--and it was the best I could do since I didn't have enough notice to get an actual tour.

After the visitor's center I walked to the front of the white house and took some pictures--it was still really early (8am) so most of the people on the streets were people who worked in the area so I felt like a total tourist taking pictures...oh well.

 After taking pictures of the front I walked around to the back and took a few more pictures.  This area was harder to figure out--there were a lot of areas blocked off by security and then a lot more areas blocked off for lawn maintenance (I think they were replacing some of the sod)--so it was really hard to tell where I was allowed to walk and where I wasn't.  I kept having this fear that I would suddenly have all these Secret Service agents come up and ask me what I was doing.  I spent a lot of time watching to see if other people were walking where I wanted to walk before I went there!

For some reason I always thought this was the front of the white house....I also was wondering where the playset is that the Obama's installed (saw pictures in the visitor's center).  I had always pictured the White house much bigger--it definitely is big, but smaller than it appears on TV and pictures I've seen (maybe that is because I am so far away!).  On one of my tour bus rides the guide pointed out the McDonalds that Clinton would always stop at after his run....after riding the tour bus a few times I had all kinds of pointless knowledge to bring back with me!

The national Christmas Tree....this really was bigger in pictures--the old one was planted in the 70s but blew down in a windstorm early last year so they replaced it--it wasn't that impressive and it had a huge fence around it and security....seemed a little funny for not such an impressive tree!

Any distance to Washington, DC is calculated to this point--between the tree and the White House...just in case you are wondering.

After walking around a bit more I walked back to the main trolley stop and caught the 9am trolley and rode it to the capitol. 

I wanted to see more of the supreme court and library of congress--but I just didn't have time.

I had decided to try to take a tour of the capitol.  Apparently, it would have been better to try and contact my senator or congressman to get a tour, but for a last minute decision I was happy to be able to go at all.

One nice thing about going in January is that there aren't any lines anywhere--the line for the public walk up tickets had all these ropes set up to manage big lines--but I was the only one in it.

The original Supreme Court chambers--apparently they didn't move into their own building for about 130 years after they started here (they were promised their own building soon and asked to meet at the capitol temporarily)  Some of the really historic decisions were made in these chambers.

I loved how beautiful everything was--the ceilings were incredible.  In this room is the marker marking the center of Washington, DC (not to be confused with the marker that all distances are measured to that is in front of the White House).

This room was incredible.

I would have sworn that this mural that circled the room was 3D--the tour guide told us that it was intended to be 3D, but the artist got permission to do it in a way that looked 3D, but was only 2D.  Even after she said that, I had a hard time believing it.

Each state has 2 statues in the capitol--and at least one of them is visible on the tour. Georgia's statue was of Crawford W. Long (first man to discover effect of ether and use it in surgery)  and Alexander Hamilton Stevens (confederate vice president).  Utah's statue was of Brigham Young (above) and Philo T. Farnsworth (father of television--and patents that helped development of many other things-radar, infared light, etc)

statuary hall.

I really wanted to see if my senator or congressman could get me in to listen to what was happening in the house or senate, but I just didn't have time.  Instead I left and walked to the National Archives and saw the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights.  There were lots of kids around DC today--filling out little workbooks with their parents.  While I was at the constitution, there were a couple of 10 year old boys talking to the security guard (asking if people tried to steal it, etc).  The guard asked them what their favorite things were and the what their least favorite things were.  I loved their answers on their least favorite things:  1--Homework, 2--Parents, 3--Rules.  I just had to laugh, and it made me miss my kids!

After the national archives I walked back and took a trolley to the National Cathedral.  It was incredibly beautiful, and we were allowed to take pictures--but it just seemed wrong to take pictures inside a church so I didn't.

I came back and I had officially finished the things I had on my list.  I still had a couple of hours before everything closed so I decided to go see the National Gallery of Art (classical not modern).  The Gallery was incredible and I saw some amazing pictures.  I checked my camera, not realizing I could take pictures (so many museums, so many different policies) so I didn't get pictures of my favorites, but I did see a painting by Da Vinci that is the only one you can see in the Western Hemisphere.  I love Art museums and I was happy I had time to walk through it (though I had to walk rather quickly to see all of the paintings).

I left at closing and walked back to the hotel.  Matt and I went out to dinner that night, but the restaurant was only fair and I definitely wouldn't go back.

Friday morning my flight left at noon so I needed to leave to the airport by 10 or 10:30 at the latest.  Since almost everything opened at 10 I didn't really have time to do anything--but I did decide to go back to Ford's theater to see the theater and the Peterson House (where Lincoln Died).  After walking through the theater and seeing the plexiglassed room where Lincoln was shot, I walked through the theater thinking how amazing it was to be there.  About that time another guest asked one of the workers how much was original.  She replied that only the outside brick wall was original--the theater had burned down in the late 1800s and what was rebuilt was a replica--the theater wasn't quite as neat after that.  I was pleased to find out that the Peterson house had its original interior structure.

I went back to the hotel, checked out and took a cab to the airport.  I was worried about having enough time and left my room at 9:52.  At 10:25 I was sitting in front of my gate thinking I should have stayed a bit longer!  Matt flew home later that evening.  It really was a great trip, and I was happy to be home with the kids again!