Sunday, June 13, 2010

Sherri and Rheid's Most Excellent Washington DC Adventure Day 9




Day 9: June 12, Saturday

Well today the weather elves not only turned up the heat a bit more they added large quantities of humidity to go with it, ugh! We were up and going early this morning to catch our Capital Tour (kudos again to Congresswoman Markey's office…I guess I'll have to try harder to like her now.) Just wondering...how many times can you say amazing before people won't believe you any more? Because the Capital, especially the rotunda, was amazing! Yes, once again over-zealous security guards freaked out about my "backpack" which to the barely observant looks a lot like oxygen…pleeeze! But we and our evil Werther's candy wrappers (made with foil, yeah who knew) made it through security and found our group. We were disappointed not to see the Senate or Representatives chambers as part of the tour. The Hall of Statues (each state gets to submit two) was very cool--took pictures of Brigham Young -Utah and astronaut man- Colorado. Watched a couple interesting videos about both houses of Congress. They really do much more than we give them credit for. We spent such a long time there we decided to eat in the Capital Restaurant and avoid the long search/walk for food.

Next we went to check out Union Station--a gorgeous old train station that now houses Amtrak and many shops. Explored for a bit then went across the street to the US Postal Museum. Learned so much about the pony express, the mail cars on the railroads, how the postal routes came to be, and even the history of the mail delivery vehicles. FYI- finally found a post office that actually lets you buy stamps.

We then tried to finish the Museum of American History--visit number three. We were able to see Fonzie's leather jacket, Minnie Pearl's hat, Dorothy's ruby slippers, Carol Burnett's curtain dress from her Gone With the Wind sketch (hilarious), C3PO, Rafiki's Lion King outfit from Broadway, Kermit the frog, Apollo Anton Ono's speed skates, plus lots more. One gallery housed a Lincoln exhibit which was fascinating. We saw the top hat Lincoln wore the night he was assassinated, his black suit, one of Mary's gowns, the brier built to hold his casket when it lied in-state at the Rotunda, family photographs and lots of other interesting things. Glad we had gone on the walking tour first because we saw the hoods of the prisoners who were hung for their part in the assassination conspiracy...Oooh...insert goose bumps here.

And so ends another hot yet wonderful day of realizing the blessings of living in our free country.

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