Washington D.C. - Day Two

We left our room this morning about 8:45am to walk to the Metro Station. Today we rode to Union Station and got off there. What a big place! For those that don't know, Union Station is not only a Metro Line, but an Amtrack line as well. From there we walked over to the Russell building to Senator Smith's office where we were to meet for our reserved tour. There were about 15 of us that went on the tour with one of the Congressional Staffers who works for Senator Smith. This is definately the way to go...we used the "underground tunnels" and transportation ( a 20 second ride via a tram like car) to get to the Capital building. As Michael so well put it, "That was a waste of money." The tram moves people a very very short distance for what it must of cost.

Senator Smith's Office in the Russell Building by the Capital.

Michael and Evan sit in the waiting room of the Senator's office for the tour to start.

This is the tram that we took that moved for all of 20 seconds.

We saw the Rotunda and learned about much of the architecure and statues/paintings that were commissioned in the building. Evan attached himself to our tour guide and asked him lots of questions. Michael was the one taking in all the history that he shared. Matt said this tour was a highlight of our trip. After the Capital tour we went back to Union station for lunch at Uno's pizzaria. And nope, the blocks did not get any shorter today.

The painting and artwork in the ceiling of the Rotunda of the Capital Building.

Evan attaches himself to the our tour guide - an aide for Senator Smith.

Evan and Michael enjoy their lunch at Uno's

Following lunch we went to the Postal Museum - which is actually part of the Smithsonian Museums, but located no where near most of the others on the mall. The museum was interesting and we learned a lot about the history of the Postal System in the U.S. We learned about military v-mail, the pony express, paying for mail delivery via picking up your mail, and postal inspectors and problems today. After a brief stop in the gift shop, we left to go to see the Supreme Court.

Michael creates and writes out a postcard at the Postal Museum for Mrs. Lusk.

Evan takes a ride on one of the mail delivery wagons of the early postal delivery days.

Just outside the Supreme Court were protestors trying to abolish the death penalty. We took some pictures outside as we learned that the building was closed for some remodeling during the Justices' break. Well, Matt found out we could still go into the building, but the courtroom where the Justice's hear cases was closed. We did peer inside their courtroom. You could still walk around the building and look at all the paintings and descriptions of current and past Justice's - wow there are a lot of them.

The U.S. Supreme Court Building

Evan, Michael, and Amy in front of a statue of Justice Marshall.

The Library of Congress was our last stop for the day. Our reserved tour started at 3:45pm. We sure learned a lot about how and why the Library was started. Our tour guide was definately into his job. Finally someone asked the question that Michael wanted to ask but was too shy to ask - where the heck are all the books? Of course at the Library of Congress, you don't get to see the books. But here are some quick facts - the books take up 540 linear MILES of shelf space. The books are over 9 building stories high. The books create the load bearing walls. No load bearing walls were built into the building. The Library receives over 710,000 new books each year!

Michael, Matt, and Evan sitting on the steps of the Library of Congress.

Matt finally breaks the news to Michael that he will not actually get to see the 18,000,000 books and other materials in the Library of Congress.

It was after 5:30pm when our tour finished so we decided to have dinner before taking the Metro back and all the government folks were pouring onto the Metro. Not much here in D.C. is open past 5pm as those are "federal hours" - must be nice! We had dinner at a local D.C. restaurant - the Tortilla Coast. Then we took the Metro back to our hotel in Maryland and here we are.

Tomorrow we're leaving our hotel very early - bout 6:45am to try to get tickets to get into the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. We also plan to hit some of the Smithsonian Museums - the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of Air and Space. Maybe we will get to see the monuments also, but if not whatever we don't get to tomorrow we'll finish up on Saturday. Mount Vernon is where we're heading on the 4th. Until tomorrow...