Day 2 - Washington D.C.

U.S. Capitol

We spent the second day on a tour of the U.S. Capitol. It really was amazing. We had a representative from Senator Harry Reid's office give us a detailed tour of the whole building.

Jon is standing on the star that is inlaid in the floor that marks the point where Washington D.C.'s streets are numbered. It used to mark the center of Washington D.C. It is found in the crypt of the Capitol (it is called the Crypt because it was built to house the body of President Washington...but he ended up being laid to rest at Mt. Vernon).

Original Supreme Court Chambers

Rotunda

Okay...so this is awesome. There is a statue that is made for each of the Presidents of the United States. President Reagan's statue has little pieces of the Berlin Wall in it.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Entrance to Nancy Pelosi's office

Brigham Young???

Each state was asked to choose 2 notable people from their state's history and have statues made of them to be added to the Capitol's Statuary Hall.

This one is from Utah.

This is us standing on the balcony outside of Senator Reid's office. The view is amazing!

After we left Senator Reid's office, a security guard asked us if we wanted to go to the President's Room. This is the room where all of the President's go after they are inaugurated. Our tour guide had never been in this room before and so we all learned about it together. There were no cameras allowed. There was, however, a picture of President Johnson and Martin Luther King, Jr. in the room after the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The table that is in the room is the table that President Lincoln used when he signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

Ummm...pretty amazing.

Her name is the Statue of Freedom and she is what tops the roof of the Capitol Building and she (and what she represents) is beautiful.

After we finished up our 4 hour tour of the Capitol, we whipped out our very touristy tour book to find where we could go before everything closed. We must have looked totally lost and a random man came up and asked if we needed help finding something. Since we didn't know where we should go, he suggested that we follow him. There were 4 of us and 1 of him so we totally followed.

So...

We found out that he was the head of the secret service for the Capitol and he ended up being the perfect tour guide. He whisked us off to see the Library of Congress. I had heard of it (and probably touched the building with my Dad!), but I didn't really know what went on inside.

It was breathtaking. The art. The books. Everything.

Did you know that you have to get permission to even do research there?

I didn't.

After a quick dinner, we ventured to the Thomas Jefferson Monument. It was awesome to see D.C. at night. All of the monuments are lit up and the weather was so calm. It was peaceful to sit on the steps of the monument and just think.

I feel blessed to live in America.