Wednesday began cold and rainy. (Actually it ended cold and rainy and was cold and rainy every moment in between.) Our first appointment of the day was a tour of the Capital. We ate breakfast at the hotel and then made our way to the Longworth Office building to Bobby Bright's office. His staffers were the ones giving us our tour.
We arrived early. We were able to go in his office and have our picture made behind his desk. Whitman and Haden got to sit in his chair. From what I gather, he has a very good office for a freshman member of Congress. They get their offices by a lottery. He also has a flat screen tv in his office, but we were told the previous Representative left it.
I have been emailing with one of his staffers, Anna Bern. I always referred to her as Ms. Bern. When I met her, she was like 23 years old. All of the staffer that we saw were very young. Anyway, our tour began with a guy name Trey. He graduated from Samford University and was a youth minister in Opp one summer. He too was very young. He took us to the Capitol Visitors' Center. The Capitol is no longer opened to public walk throughs. All tours must be guide led.
There were so many people waiting for their tour. However, we got the rock star tour. Trey flashed his green staffer badge, got our tickets. The tour started with a short movie about the purpose of the legislative branch. We got to go in the back door and get first choice of seats in the theatre. Planning does really pay off. Anna took over the tour after the movie.
I will say that the Trey and Anna were pretty funny. They have only been in Washington since January, and this was the first tours they had done when Congress was not in session. They weren't sure what they could and couldn't do or where they could and couldn't go. We had gallery passes for the House and Senate side, but the Senate side is closed when not in session.
Since Congress was not in session, we were able to get a floor pass to the House of Representatives. This must be a big deal. Anna had never been, and didn't know how to get there. She asked a security guard and we were on our way. We went into a part of the Capital where only the members go. The hallways and chamber were exquisite . It is a shame that no one gets to see it. We knew that we could take pictures in the gallery (the take all of your electronics). Just so you know, that rule also applies to the hallways leading to the chamber. Jody tried, but security nixed that very quickly. We got to go on the House floor, sit in their chairs and see where they vote. We were feet away from where the President gives the State of the Union address. This was part of the rock star tour. Many people were walking around in the balcony. We were the only ones on the floor.
In addition to the gallery, we saw the rotunda which is completely beautiful, Statuary Hall, and the Crypt. We probably didn't get as much historical info as the we would have from the tour guides, but honestly I probably wouldn't remember it anyway. We came, we saw. Check it off the list and move on. Oh, and we got to ride the train that connects the office buildings with the capital. Fun for the kids and very helpful when it is raining.
We went back to Bright's office, signed the book, and Anna gave the boys some books on the Constitution and flags. We met a mother and daughter from Enterprise that were there for a tour. They know my friend Cami who is a guidance counselor at EHS. Again, small world.
Luckily I had planned Wednesday afternoon to be for visiting museums. Unluckily, so did everyone else. We wanted to go to the Museum of American History and the Museum of Natural History.
We started of in American History. Whit wanted to start in the science part. They have a kids lab, where they do experiments every 30 minutes. This was right up Whit's alley. We ended up staying in there over an hour. Other than that, we didn't do much in that museum. For one, this museum is very busy (by this I mean that there are lots of exhibits and lots of info.) You would have to spend a very long time and read quite a bit of info. This was not possible due to the large crowds and my party. I would liked to have seen the exhibit on the First Ladies and the pop culture exhibit, but the lines were very long. Oh well. Maybe next time.
We had to get a snack next, because blood sugar was dropping and we were sinking. Our schedule was off, so we had eaten a late breakfast, no lunch. We then headed to Natural History.
We were in luck. This museum was going to be open until 7:30 instead of 5:30. Great! Two more hours of walking. It was the best news I had heard all day.
Whit really did like this museum. He has always wanted to see a big dinosaur. He finally got to see several. We saw the Hope Diamond and many other rocks and bones. Whit is totally enamored with science. He could have stayed here for a very long time. However, with a pass through the gift shop, we were out in a little over 2 hours.
With a slight break in the rain, we decided to make our way to the ESPN Zone for dinner. by this time it was between 6:30 and 7:00. On the way I decided to go by Ford's Theatre to get tickets for Thursday. When we got to ESPN, the wait was 2 hours. On to plan B.
We took the metro back to Crystal City and shuttled to the hotel. We got the shuttle guy to drop us off at Ted's Montana Grill. We had eaten there Sunday, and loved it. So, we went again. Jody and I both had a bison steak. Very good!! We took a cab back to the hotel bacause it was raining.
It was 10:00 before we got back to the hotel. Another very long day!!
Tomorrow is our last day! We are going to try and cram in all of the things we have't done yet.
Stay tuned......
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment