Today we toured Washington, D.C. Before we went, I took this extremely rare picture of Sherry ironing her shirt. She was very happy to have her picture taken, as you can see!
We started out in the capitol building. We were on time, but everything was shut down due to a "suspicious package" that someone had left. We had to wait a while. Forrest used the time to go over to Sen. Merkley's office and get gallery passes to the Senate and the House galleries. While inside, we listened to testimony on the Senate Health Reform efforts and Colorado Water, and on the House Veterans Health Benefits bill. Unfortunately, it was all rather tame, the boys were not enchanted with it.
The capitol dome features a lot of fresco artwork, including this piece above the rotunda. Look closely, and you will see George Washington surrounded by women. To his left and right are Liberty and Freedom.
This is the Reverend Jason Lee, first missionary and colonist to Oregon, 1834-1843. There are many statues of historic figures in the capitol building, as well as busts, murals, mosaics and frescoes.
Our tour guide was a nice guy, but almost impossible to hear in the echo chamber of the capital. Each tour group had about 50 people, and there were 5 or 6 groups! For future reference, I think a private tour through a congressional office would be a much better way to go.
Next we moved to the Library of Congress. The boys really enjoyed the Bob Hope exhibit, as one might guess. They said the Library of Congress was their favorite building. It was also the most interactive.
The Library also had a Gershwin display, which included this grand piano. We were impressed with the handwritten musical scores, with parts for many different instruments.
We also saw one of only three existing vellum Gutenburg Bibles in perfect condition, and the only existing original Bible of Mainz.
In the Thomas Jefferson Library exhibit, Sherry found a book called "Cooper on Bankruptcy." And to think I always assumed our Jewish ancestry came from Grandma's side!
The Library of Congress contains more gold leaf than any other building in North America. It is 23 Karat gold, actually. This picture also includes the twin statues of Minerva, goddess of peace and wisdom, for the Library's purposes. Their new digitization project is also called Minerva.
Sherry took this closeup picture of a "putti" or vocational cherub. Many of these line the walls of one chamber, and this particular one is an electrician, as demonstrated by the phone in one ear. The telephone had just come out when these were sculpted.
The picture below features the same putti in the interactive computer challenge Jeremy was taking. He knew this answer, of course!
Next, we moved on to the Supreme Court building, where Sherry took this picture of us with John Marshall, the famous justice who greatly expanded the court's power in the early 19th century. Notice Jeremy has his arms crossed, to hide the bright orange stains created when he tipped his cafeteria tray too much and spilled his pizza on his white shirt. To be fair, Sherry also failed to properly stow her dishes and tray on the conveyer belt, and broke the tray, the dishes and the metal cage all in one move. We all felt bad, but we also felt fleeced, after our $45 lunch of salad and pizza!
I really wish the park service would take over running tours of these buildings. They did a great job on our tours yesterday. At the Supreme Court we got a lecture from a lady who sounds like she smoked all her life and must have retired twice by now. She was not a very good speaker, and not very informative.
Sherry took this picture of Ian and Forrest on the steps of the Court.
On the way out of the Jefferson building (so named in 1980), we took a couple pictures. This one has Sherry and the boys in the foreground, since it was the favorite for all of them.
We finally made it to Defazio's office, after a national treasure-like hike through the dungeons of three office buildings, past pallets and moving crates and through several sets of swinging rubber doors (not kidding!). It was still better than walking above ground through the oppressive heat and humidity of Washington in the summer.
We signed the guest book, but did not see our beloved representative, alas. Should have gone to see Walden, I guess.
The trip home was difficult. We got on the Metro underground transit at 5:10, rush hour. The accident yesterday shut down half a line, and most of those passengers ended up on our line. After things finally thinned out, I counted the passengers in our car: 102, including 48 sitting and 54 standing. At this point, I think we had easily lost more than half the people we started with. Imagine a train car, making 13 stops, with around 300 people on board! Sherry had her portable, battery-powered personal fan with her, and used it all the way home!
We had a swim when we got back, to cool down, and ate a poor man's sandwich with fixings we picked up at Safeway. It was still better food than lunch!
We had a swim when we got back, to cool down, and ate a poor man's sandwich with fixings we picked up at Safeway. It was still better food than lunch!
