More rain today, but our first activity was a tour of the Capitol building, so it didn’t affect us much. We stopped by our House Rep’s office before going to the Capitol to pick up gallery passes for the House and the Senate. There, we learned that Congress was just returning from a break, so there wasn’t likely to be any debate on the floor of either chamber until the evening. Anyway, we had the passes in case we wanted to go. We also learned that the Freedom statue on top of the cupola dome is lit whenever Congress is in session, and that the sessions are always public, so we could decide whether we wanted to return later. As it turned out, we never did.
Our House Rep’s office had arranged a tour of the Capitol building for us. However, there was some mix-up and when we arrived at the Capitol, we had neither a reservation number nor a staffer to guide us on our tour. No matter – compulsive planning comes through again. I had made back-up reservations through the Capitol visitors’ website for a general group tour at the same time as the private tour we thought we had arranged with a staff member from our House Rep’s office. We explained our situation to one of the visitor center representatives, who was very courteous and made sure we knew where to go to join our group tour. Our tour began with a 15 minute video about Congress, which was well-done and especially helpful for those of us who last studied US history a long time ago. When the video was over and we were leaving the auditorium to find our assigned group, our helpful visitor center representative was waiting for us and informed us that he had arranged a private guide for us! We were surprised and delighted. Mark, our guide, had been giving tours of the Capitol for 11 years and knew everything! He showed us all the main sights, including the original Supreme Court chamber (very dark and damp), the original Senate chamber (he told us the tale of the caning of Senator Sumner and other stories), some of the old committee rooms, and the rotunda. Unfortunately, the last is still largely covered in scaffolding and tarps from the extensive repair work, but the scaffolding is coming down bit by bit.
Following our Capitol tour, we found that the rain had stopped. We decided to take advantage of the clear spell and walk to the Washington Monument, where we had another set of timed tickets for 12:30. This was Evan’s introduction to the National Mall. We walked past the National Gallery, the Museum of Natural History, the American History Museum, and the new (not yet open) Museum of African American History on our way to the Washington Monument. It was lovely to see locals and tourists alike out enjoying the sun between the clouds. We got to the monument a few minutes early and were able to stretch out on the surprisingly comfortable granite benches while we waited for our group to be called. None of us had slept well the night before. Four of us were still basically on West Coast time and had a hard time going to sleep, and our one East Coast resident had an airbed that unfortunately had a leak. We were a little tired and a few minutes on the benches in the sun were just what we needed.
Soon it was our turn to ride the elevator 550 feet to the top of the monument. From the top, you can look out in all four directions through fairly small windows and see some pretty famous landmarks. We could see to the east the Capitol dome from which we had come. To the north was the White House, to the west, the Lincoln Memorial beyond the reflecting pool, and to the south the Pentagon across the Potomac. There are panels between the windows explaining the history and construction of the monument. One level down from the top are more displays. My favorite showed photos of some of the many commemorative plaques from various countries, states, cities and organizations, all in tribute to George Washington. Many are old, but a few are relatively recent. They vary a lot in size and style – some are small and simple and others are large and elaborate. States and cities are the most common. Foreign countries have given some of them. There are a lot from organizations such as the Masons and Odd Fellows and quite a few from various municipal fire departments! On the elevator ride back down, the attendant slowed the car so that we could see a few of the real plaques.
After descending, Sara was headed to POMED, where she was scheduled to provide some training to a new group of interns. The rest of us decided we were tired and hungry, so we Ubered home for lunch and naps. We had a couple hours before our next appointment at the National Archives, which is another attraction for which timed tickets are available online in advance. Conserving energy, we Ubered again and, with our timed passes, we were able to walk past a long line of eighth graders and their chaperones (it seemed to be a very popular week for middle school students to visit DC) waiting to get in. However, once inside, there were lots more eighth graders and we had to wait our turn to get near the cases where the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are displayed. It was pretty impressive to see the originals of these important documents.
Another Uber ride and we were home again, but this time preparing for a very different type of activity. We had invited Clark and Marcia over for drinks. Clark is Steve’s cousin and he and his wife, Marcia, were Sara’s adoptive parents for the first three months she was in DC. They were wonderful to her and really helped her get established in her new city. We all had tickets that evening to watch the Nationals play the Mets (oh, no, which team would I root for? Clark is a big Nationals fan, but I grew up on Long Island!). We had invited Clark and Marcia to park in our driveway and walk over to the ball park after drinks. Marcia brought a delicious loaf of sourdough bread that she had made earlier in the day (with starter that son Cal had brought her from San Francisco) as well as cheese and other goodies, which supplemented the snacks, beer and wine that we had on hand from our suburban shopping trip. We sat around our dining room table for an hour and a half talking, eating and drinking until it was time to head to the game. It was still sprinkling off and on and rather cool, so we bundled up in all the layers we had, took our umbrellas and left for the stadium.
It was bobblehead giveaway night at the Nationals stadium, so each of us is now the proud owner of a Max Scherzer Washington Nationals No-Hitter bobblehead. The game didn’t turn out to be very close, with the Mets hitting three homeruns, including back-to-back homeruns in the fifth inning. The final score was 7-1. We had fun sitting and chatting throughout the game, and we didn’t get rained on.
We walked back to our house after the game and said farewell to Clark and Marcia. It was a great day, and we were tired! Sara decided to go sleep in her own bed and meet us the next morning at our first stop.
Touring the Capitol Building
A few Washington Monument commemorative plaques
Nationals Stadium
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