Washington, DC - Day 2

The hotel had a complimentary breakfast that we took advantage of this morning before we headed out on our adventures. (Our hotel is packed! Packed. You have to wait in line to get on the elevators. I've never seen so many people in a hotel - it's fine except the line this morning for breakfast was a bit long.)

We walked to the Metro and took the train to the Capitol where we had a scheduled tour with one of Mark Sanford's staffers. 

Down into the Metro - all my boys are fascinated with subway systems!

We had some time before we were to meet for our tour so we went into the Library of Congress. This was my most favorite building in all of DC that we saw. It was incredible and if we didn't have a meeting to keep I would have explored for much longer than we did.

Everywhere you looked was just beautiful. This is the Great Hall which is 75 feet from the marbled floors to the stained glass ceilings. It is filled with amazing marble columns, staircases, and paintings.

And this is the Main Reading Room. Visitors aren't allowed in there just to tour. You have to have a special pass given to you after you have filled out a request and shown ID, much like our own public libraries.

The Library serves as the research branch of Congress and is staffed by specialists who can supply Congress with unbiased information on just about anything.

It is considered the national Library of the United States and houses the world's most comprehensive record of human knowledge. We saw the Gutenberg Bible (a first printing) and the the Giant Bible of Mainz.

Ans this is Thomas Jefferson's original library. When DuBose and I went to Monticello this summer we learned on our tour that he was a lover of books and when he ran out of room in his home to shelf them, he started donating books to the US. He had an impressive collection at Monticello but this was a much larger collection of his personal books. It was cool to see my children surrounded by all of that history. 

Truly, an amazing building. I highly recommend it!

The Capitol is right across the street so we headed that way to meet our tour guide, Martha Susan. Martha is a staffer for Mark Sanford, our Congressman. (He is also a parent here at school where his 4 boys have or will graduate.) This tour was actually arranged by our good friend, Jim Hirni. He literally had this tour scheduled within an hour of hearing we were going to be in DC, which yesterday. Typically it takes weeks to get a tour like this scheduled so we are very grateful he was able to pull it off. And that she was willing - she flew back to DC yesterday from her Christmas break and is moving to Charleston in two days to work for Mark Sanford here. She was crazy busy but was super sweet to do this. She was a great tour guide and talked her way into all sorts of places for us to see.

This star on the floor is considered the "center of DC." It is where George and Martha Washington were going to be buried before it was decided to bury them at Mt Vernon. Apparently, it is good luck to stand on the star  sowe all put our foot in for luck!

John C Calhoun

We were able to see the Old Senate Chamber.

This is the first air conditioner  - it was huge hole where they put blocks of ice. The cool air would come up through the grate.

This is the Congressional Prayer Room which was one of the places she was able to get us into. I loved that it was right off the Rotunda and the place where so many have sat to pray before making a vote that changed the course of our history. Nice to know that those who want it, have the option to pray in the Capitol.

Another spot not on a regular tour is the Speaker's Balcony. What a view! We could see the entire National Mall to the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial behind it. Pope Francis stood here recently. We had to walk through the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Paul Ryan's office suit to get to it.

Very cool.

Then we went onto the Senate floor which was so neat. Martha had some great stories about the old desks and some of the people who have sat in them.

And then she was able to get us on the Floor of the House of Representatives. This is a picture from the internet because we had to leave all of our personal items, phones included, outside. This was so cool and she told us some great stories about Mark Sanford (she is in charge of getting him to vote on time - she once had to find him jogging around the Mall and had 12 minutes to do it. She did and he made the vote! Apparently, his attire made quite a splash in the news.)

This was such a great tour and made even better because Martha was so great. You can tell she loves her job, loves the hustle of DC, loves the games of politics. She ran all through that building when they wouldn't let us on the House floor the first time through. She didn't give up, ran around and got the approval she needed. And I think she took great pleasure in going back to the intern who wouldn't let her in the first time and saying, "So-and-So called up?" Oh yes, they did and in we went.

And then she went above and beyond and took us by to car to the Lincoln Memorial. She gave us a quick tour while we drove. She even tried to get Mark Sanford on the phone so we could talk to him, but he is in SC with his family for the holiday. We will definitely thank him next time we see him around the school.

We had a good visit with Abraham Lincoln :)

The Gettysburg Address

Great views from there as well! This time looking back to the Capitol.

We walked around the back to get views of the Potomac and the Jefferson Memorial.

We walked through the Vietnam Memorial, 

and the World War II Memorial.

We kept on walking 

going to Old Ebbitt Grill for a late lunch. This is the oldest bar and restaurant in Washington, open since 1856. We enjoyed sitting down and a yummy lunch before continuing on our DC adventures.

We stopped at the National Building Museum which we were excited about, but it turned out to not be what we thought it was. The building itself was beautiful though.

We went to Union Station to look at the large model railroad.

From there we grabbed an Uber back to our hotel. 

We rested for awhile. It always feels good to rest your feet after all that walking - we did 7 miles today. DuBose took the kids to the free social hour the hotel puts on every afternoon for drinks and snacks. Apparently, it was a madhouse but they scored some good snacks.

We went to Acadiana for dinner. This was in the same block as our hotel and we were meeting a friend (and lawyer of) DuBose's. Caryn is usually at all of the conferences DuBose and I go to together so I have met her several times. She is fun and was quite happy to meet our kids. She brought them all sweatshirts from the State Department where her husband works. We enjoyed our visit and our dinner and then hit the hotel to go to bed. We were tired from another busy day in DC.