Washington DC- Wednesday April 11

Here we go, Washington DC!!!!!!! We drove into the city and got our first glimpse of the famous places in store for us. We passed the Pentagon.. I had NO idea that it was so close to major freeways! On 9-11, the plane would have come in right over all the cars. I can't imagine what that must have been like! We never stopped at the Pentagon, and I have a few just "ok" shots of it out of the bus window, so if you REALLY want to see it, let me know and I will email you a picture.

Our first stop this morning would be the Capitol building. You have to stand in line to get tickets to tour the Capitol. We waited in line for about 1 1/2 hours and they sold out before we got to the front. While we waited, we snapped some pictures.

Hannah and her friends. I really LOVE this picture. After much grumbling from the kids.. "We waited in line for nothing???", "That was stupid..." etc., we walked up the hill and went to the Library of Congress.

The kids may not have been excited, but I was BESIDE myself at the joy of seeing THE Library!

Let me say first in my defense of this picture, that I had already taken it, when I realized that it was not allowed...
A GUTENBERG BIBLE!!! I said, "Hannah, do you know what this is?" and she said, "Mom, its just a Bible... we have those at home." (OK, so the Page in me is coming out, she may not have said those exact words, but her sheer look of boredom expressed that sentiment) So, I explained the relevance of it to her, she was slightly more impressed, but not much. I, however, was thrilled! You can check out this link to see more about the Gutenberg Bible. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Bible
I must say that the inside of the Library of Congress is perhaps the most beautiful building I have ever been in. These pictures just don't do it justice. You can't take a picture of a massive room like this and get the full effect. This is the great hall.

This is the ceiling of the 2nd floor hallway (which you see from the great hall). Really this is a STUNNING building. If we could have spent more time in any of the buildings we saw, this would be my choice. I could have spent hours in it.

Our next stop was the Supreme Court building (next door to the LOC), we actually ate lunch in the basement. This building was also impressive, but very "cold" feeling. We got to go into the court room, and they told us about the way things are done. It was interesting.

This is the ceiling of one of the hallways (actually, I guess it is the main hallway leading from the front steps to the courtroom itself) I noticed this flower motif, in several buildings. I thought it was pretty.
When we left the Supreme Court building, we are pretty sure we saw President Bush's motorcade. We had seen some other "short" motorcades and were told they were not the President, that we would "know" when we saw a Presidential motorcade. So this motorcade, was about 10 motorcycles, and 10 black SUV's long and the back SUV had its back open so the secret service to fire if needed. (that is how it was explained to us)

Next we walked down Constitution Avenue to the National Archives. Again, I was beside myself at the thrill of seeing what was inside! (For those who are interested, the movie "National Treasure" was NOT filmed in the building.)
We saw the Magna Carta, the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, The Bill of Rights, The Gettysburg Address, just an amazing assortment of documents. They had a room that had things from Presidents' schooling (report cards etc), and a room of letters sent to the Presidents' (there was a letter to FDR or Eisenhower maybe, from Fidel Castro when he was a kid... he asked for a $10 bill, because he had never seen one before...) It was a fascinating building.
After we finished there, we went to the Old Post Office for dinner (the Old Post Office is now a mall). We were looking forward to our "Illumination Tour" after Dinner, my next post will have all those pictures, but I didn't want to overwhelm you by having it all in one post!