Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Washington DC, Day 3

I guess you can tell that we're having fun because I haven't even had time to post on here!  Day 3 was just as lovely - perfect blue skies, low humidity - it was a perfect day to be out and about.  We lazed about the apartment and enjoyed coffee and then headed out for our 1:20 tour of the Capitol Building

The tour of the Capitol was quite good - all done via an ear piece that fed what the tour guide was saying directly into your ear.  This was a great idea because the cavernous building had quite an echo and some of us (ahem, Mom and Dad) are hard of hearing.

The Capitol Building

The dome from the inside - so tall that the Statue of liberty could fit inside.

The statues in the Capitol Building go through a rotation.  At present, Georgia is represented by this statue of Alexander Hamilton Stephens.  He was vice president of the Confederacy.  Georgia's statue is marked in that it was created from Georgia marble.

We hadn't planned on it, but since there was a tunnel from the capitol building to the Library of Congress, we decided to take a brief tour of the LOC.  However, the brief tour actually lasted for an hour +, and it was sooo informative (the best of the tours we had - and it was done by a volunteer).  I don't know what I thought the LOC was for (maybe a library full of boring stuff for senators), but now I know it's the coolest place on earth!  It's the largest library in the world!  It's outgrown itself at least 4 times, and that's because it gets 10,000 new pieces of material everyday.
 
The ornate inside of the LOC

The ornate outside of the LOC
Mom and Dad at the Library of Congress
Next, we shuffled on over to the Native American Museum, which has the coolest exterior by far.  The building is made out of sandstone and has almost no sharp edges to it.

Outside the Native American Museum

Looking up from the inside of the Native American Museum

From the outside of the museum

We ended the day with a final stroll around the grounds of the Capitol Building.  Below is Grant's Monument.




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