Washington, D.C., Day Three

It was our final day of exploration in our nation's capital yesterday. We were up early to get an early start, and we were at the RV park gates to catch the 9:15 a.m. bus. The bus and Metro have been very convenient and reliable. On this particular morning, the 9:15 bus didn't show up, and so we ended up waiting an additional half hour, which delayed our start. No matter. We still got to the United States Capitol early enough to catch a tour without too much additional delay.

Of course, the day starts with kitties. Yesterday morning, Sadie hogged Mike's lap, and Smitty was forced to endure hugs from the man himself. Ew.

My morning was spent stitching on the first of three dresses for the center panel of the Sundress quilt. Now it is finished. This piece has been very slow going. And may I just say, A Pox on Polka Dots! Between this piece and the Bag Ladies of the Fat Quarter Club, I'm stitching an awful lot of polka dots.

Now I've moved my hoop to the middle dress, and I'll get started on that this morning.

To get back to sight-seeing, however, each of the three days we ventured into the city, we got off the Metro at the same stop, and then either walked or took another bus to our final destination. We were going to have to wait a half hour for the bus, and so we just walked the half dozen blocks or so...long blocks. In fact, despite many miles and hours of riding public transportation during our visit here, we've also walked over 20 miles.

We approached the Capitol from the back side, and then had to walk around to the front. It was a beautiful day for walking.

From the front, the Capitol looks like this. It is such an enormous building, that even backed up as far as I could go (without falling down the stairs), I could not fit it into a single frame.

From there, we walked down some stairs, went through a security check point, and then made our way to the counter to sign up for a tour. I've neglected to mention that all of these places in Washington, D.C., are free to visit. As a United States citizen, these buildings belong to you. Oh yes, and international readers...you can visit for free too.

Once inside, we were given stickers for our shirts and told to stand in line for the next tour. Tours leave every 10 minutes. When I visited Washington, D.C., the last time, I was able to walk through here on my own. Since 9/11, so much has changed.

There are statues everywhere in the United States Capitol. Each state can choose two. This one below is Frederick Douglass.

One of Hawaii's statues is King Kamehameha.

Our first stop on the tour was the Capitol Rotunda, and it is magnificent. Looking up, this is what you see.

In the image below, I've zoomed in on the mural at the tippy top.

The carvings and designs are intricate and beautiful.

As it turns out, the United States Capitol rotunda is a dome within a dome. What you see here from the inside is a dome within the dome you see from the outside. It is possible to get up to the balcony in the image below, and from there it is even possible to get to the upper balcony way on top of the outer dome.

Our guide directed us to a GoPro video on YouTube to see what a tour of the balconies would look like. You can see the video right here.

Below, standing on the floor, it looks like this. The man in the red jacket there was our guide, Walt. He knew an amazing amount about the United States Capitol. He could even tell me the names of Oregon's statues, which I have already forgotten, although McLoughlin was one of them.

From there we visited a room that was the original House of Representatives. Now, when you see those snakes representatives in Congress being interviewed by news media, it's from this room. From here, I'm going to show you a lot of ceilings and floors.

It turned out to be an echo chamber in there (that may be the origin of the term). Even hanging draperies didn't help.

Here's what the floor looks like.

Below is a room known as "The Crypt." These sandstone pillars hold up the floor, and indeed the entire structure, of the Capitol rotunda.

It was a rather short tour. I seem to remember visiting both the House and the Senate on my previous visit, but those were not included on this tour. If you visit the U. S. Capitol Visitor's website, you can learn more than you ever wanted to know about the building.

There is a cafeteria-style restaurant in the Capitol, and we had some lunch. From there, it is possible to walk through a tunnel to reach the Library of Congress. It's also possible to walk there at street level, but we skipped security by going through the tunnel. Besides, the tunnel was very cool. It extends some distance and turns several corners.

Eventually, you reach the stairs leading up into the main structure.

And here...it really is all about the building itself. What an incredible structure! There are so many must-see sites in Washington, D.C. Indeed, the city itself is a must-see for any American. But for my money (none, because it's all free), the Library of Congress tops the must-see list. It is as beautiful as any of the cathedrals in Europe or anywhere else in the world. This is the ceiling in the main part of the building.

There appeared to be a light out in that one corner, and this being so far up off the floor, I can imagine changing out a light bulb is no small task.

Below is a close-up of one of those panels in the image above.

Also, the designs in the ceiling are echoed in the floor to a certain extent. This room has the zodiac encircling it (if you can encircle a square room).

Here's my own sign, Taurus the Bull. "Bull." It makes sense, doesn't it?

The floors in this building are all beautiful tile mosaics. I know you quilters are going to love these floors.

The hallways are incredibly ornate.

The mosaic below is on the landing of the stairs leading to the viewpoint for the main reading room.

From the balcony, the building looks like this.

This is the main reading room. You may remember seeing it in the movie, All the President's Men. (Good movie, by the way.)

Looking across the way and through those arches, you can see some of the library books. The Library of Congress contains 838 miles of book shelves.

This is the ceiling. Sorry about the reflection. This room is viewed through glass.

Below, I zoomed in on the floor.

There is an exhibit with Thomas Jefferson's library, pictured in the image below.

Be sure and notice the floor.

The books in his collection were marked with different colored ribbons, denoting whether the books were part of his original library, or whether they were added later. The lighting here was very dim, and neither Mike nor I could read many of the titles. The ones we could read were unfamiliar.

Looking through the windows of the upper floor, this is the view of the outside.

From there, we had planned to see the Air & Space Museum, but we were both pretty tired of the city and the crowds. We've both visited the Air & Space Museum before, and so we reviewed what we'd seen there and decided not to return. Instead, we returned to the RV, and thus ended this visit to Washington, D.C. We love this city, as much as we can love any city, and we will probably return to see more of it at some point in the future.

When we got home, I unloaded the day's refrigerator magnets, and uh-oh. I seem to be filling up the one and only magnetic place in the kitchen.

Even the soon-to-be-replaced-with-a-plastic-one light fixture is taken up with one magnet.

I have a magnetic bulletin board on order to be delivered to a future destination. More on that later.

Where are you guys going to sit?

Today we're heading off to a Assateague State Park, which is supposed to be one of the best state parks in the country. It happens to be alongside the Assateague National Seashore on a tiny spit of land extending out into the Atlantic Ocean on one side, and the Chesapeake Bay on the other. It will be a nice quiet place to retreat from the past week of noisy city crowds and traffic. We would have liked to stay three nights, but sadly, the park shuts down for the season on Monday, and so we'll just have two nights there. It's possible we'll be out of range for internet there, and so if you don't hear from me for a couple of days, that will be the reason. Oh yes, and we won't have electricity, which makes blogging difficult as well.

Yesterday afternoon, I planned our next couple of weeks of travel, which always gets me excited to be on the move again. I'll fill you in as we go along. For now, it's time for breakfast and more stitching.