My goodness; our tails are so dragging behind us right now. It was a great day but filled with lots of walking. We just got back into our room at 6 this evening. We do have reservations for dinner at 7:45 so we are just resting our feet until then.
We had an appointment to be at Congressman Charlie Melancon’s office @ 9 am. We took the Metro there without much event. The weather when we left the hotel was sunny but still very cool. We took jackets with us and headed out. We arrived at the Cannon House Office building where his office is located. When we arrived, one of his staff members, Layla from St. Martinsville, allowed us to look around his office while she finished her morning duties.
We took off with Layla for our private tour of The Capitol, just the three of us. This woman knows her stuff about the history of the Capitol, what goes on during a typical day, and what’s going on in the 3rd Congressional District of Louisiana. The three buildings that house the Representatives are connected to the Capitol via tunnels. It was so cool to walk through the bowels of the Capitol and find out the history of it all. We went through the original Supreme Court (it was originally located in the Capitol- it’s the room where the Dread Scott hearing was held). Beautiful architecture, not a very large room but plush. The Supreme Court has it’s own building now which is located across the street from the Capitol- we took pictures of it but did not have time to visit.
We also went into the Rotunda. Think of the room where the President’s lay in state before their funeral. Rosa Parks was the first woman to lay in state there as well. Regardless, the room in incredible. It is only lit by natural light and it was a bright sunny day (finally) which made it radiant. This is the room directly below the dome that we all relate to the Capitol. It is incredible. I was actually choked up with it all. There are numerous statues spread throughout as well as large paintings on the wall. We heard stories about each and everyone. The President walks through this room to get to his inauguration and when he makes his State of the Union speech.
After we left the Rotunda we went through more hallways and security and ended up in the gallery of the floor of the House. This is the room where the State of the Union Address is given. There was some debate going on and the room seems so much smaller than it appears on TV. Regardless, very cool experience. We listened for 15-20 minutes and watched how things work. There were very few Representatives actually in there and those people that were in attendance were not listening to either of the Rep’s debating. From what we understand this is all just face time, most Reps know how they will vote and are called into the room when it is time to vote.
When we meandered back to Melancon’s office to gather our belongings. We then spent 30 or so minutes on the lawn on the Capitol enjoying the weather and taking numerous pictures. There are so many photo-ops here.
We were hungry and realized that Union Station was a few blocks from where we were so we walked over there to grab a bite to eat. Once done, we headed over to the Supreme Court building for photographs. There were no tours going on so we just enjoyed the exterior of the building.
We had a scheduled appointment for a tour at 1:45 at the Library of Congress which is next door to the SC so we walked over there. It was so cool- we were waiting in line with the rest of the public out front of the building. A gentleman came out and asked if anyone in line was here for the Congressional tour, we got his attention and sure enough, our names were on his clipboard. Woohoo- move to the front of the line. Actually, we moved ahead of the line into the building. We were a small group on this tour.
I’ve heard of the Library of Congress but could not associate a particular structure with it. WOW! The exterior of the Jefferson Building (one of three of LOC and the original) is beautiful. The architecture here is unbelievable.
The exterior is incredible but does not come close to the interior of this building. The mosaics on the walls and floors, the granite sculptures, the paintings- my goodness. All of this is in the ‘lobby’ of sorts. The main reading room is a rotunda and four floors high. There is an observation room where we went on the fourth floor and watched as people were researching, etc. We could not take pictures there but it is an incredibly beautiful room.
We wandered around on our own and then left the LOC, walked across the street to the Capitol again relaxing on the lawn and shooting pictures. We then walked the National Mall from the Capitol back to our hotel, which is just behind the White House. It was quite a walk and we were both dragging when we returned. We stopped at the Sculpture Garden just out side of the National Galleries of Art and enjoyed that very much.
We’ve just come in from dinner and are totally beat. Our flight leaves in the morning so we are calling it a night.