Washington D.C. - in the Wings of the White House and the bowels of the Capitol

Doesn't that title just make you cringe?  I did that on purpose.

After our early morning power walk to Lincoln for sunrise, we hightailed it back to the hotel to don more professional apparel and hot footed over to the White House. Like two blocks from our hotel. If not for some annoying parking complex, we could have seen the White House from our window. Speaking of our hotel room, supposedly, we had the best room in the place. It was no honeymoon suite but it was pretty nice. Top floor, corner room. All Matt did was ask. Sometimes it embarrasses me when he does stuff like that, but other times, I'm just impressed.

Enough of that mushiness.

Lemme tell you about security at the White House. In-friggin'-tense.  Not only did we have to request to visit six months in advance with all kinds of sensitive information (did they really need my blood type? I'm kidding, they asked everything BUT my blood type.), but once we got there, we had to have nothing on our person but our admission confirmation page, IDs, and our cameras/phones with very specific instructions on usage. We had to go through security with our IDs three times before we got to go inside the building. THREE TIMES. We were corralled through the whole inspection process so I'm not sure why the multiple body cavity searches were necessary (kidding about that too. The body cavity search part, not the three ID checks). And naturally, since we were in DC and you have to go through a metal detector to go inside the Walgreen's, we had to do the whole empty-your-pockets-and-walk-slowly-through-the-scanner thing too.

 Y'all.  See those portraits on the back wall beyond the velvet rope? 

That's Martha and George Washington. In the East Room. This room is where Lincoln and Kennedy were um, kept before they were buried. In Washington, the vogue phrase for that is "laid in state." I've never cared for that part of saying goodbye before or during a funeral but neither Mary Todd nor Jackie asked my opinion. 

Interestingly, that portrait of George Washington is THE one that ol' Dolley Madison "saved" when the British set fire to the White House. I actually asked one of the Secret Service agents about it and he said that Dolley didn't actually save it but had a couple of the soldiers cut it out of the frame and rescue it. Also interestingly, this portrait is a copy of the original. This one was painted by the exact same artist who did the original, but it isn't exactly the same. The artist intentionally misspelled titles of the books so that he could tell the difference. 

George and Martha. 

The picture below probably looks familiar if you replace us with a podium and a president. This doorway is where most presidents have press conferences and stuff.

Outside the front door.

Once we finished seeing about five or six rooms in the White House (which is all we were allowed to see...), we left! And caught an Uber (ugh.) to the Capitol building.  I know, you can't wait to hear about the bowels!

The capitol is kind of like all those buildings in Italy - being renovated.... scaffolding everywhere.

 Back when I was in first grade I wore those bows with the metal clips. One sunshiny day I was riding on the merry go round in a manner which was ill-advised and fell off. I the back of my head at the perfect angle and force to cause the metal clip to cut my head. My mother was called to the school to take me to the doctor. I was a bloody mess so the elementary gifted teacher offered to drive my mom and me to her husband's office just a few blocks away. Her husband was Dr. Abraham. A veterinarian. He was in medical school at the time but wasn't a medical doctor.

Anyway. 

He shaved my head, stitched me up, and I still have a pretty gnarly scar today. Shortly after that, Dr. Abraham became a family practitioner in Mangham and went on to be elected to Congress while Mrs. Abraham came to be my gifted teacher and prefer me over all my other siblings.  I'm kidding, Jeffrey is probably her favorite. But I digress. 

When Matt and I decided to go to D.C., first thing I did was text Mrs. Abraham. She and Dr. Abraham's office lined up our tours and suggested sights to see.  Once we got to D.C., Mrs. Abraham gave us a tour fit for a foreign dignitary. 

We started our tour by visiting Dr. Abraham's office and meeting all of his staff in the Cannon House Office Building. It takes a lot of local staff to run a Congressional office. I couldn't work for a member of Congress. I'm not sure that I could deal with the security searches. Then, we went through the tunnels to get to the Capitol. The tunnels are the bowels that I referenced in my title. Clever, huh.

Mrs. Abraham showed us the Exhibition Hall which has impressive displays of Capitol Hill since the Capitol was in its design phases. There is also a model of the rotunda where viewers can see the paintings (that are currently covered in tarps) that encircle the inner dome. Think Italy, but George Washington is Jesus.

We also got to go inside the Congressional Prayer Room. You won't see this if you go without Mrs. Abraham...

Know what else you won't see?

The view from the Speaker's balcony. First, why oh why does the Speaker get his own balcony? It's not like he has time to use it.  Mrs. Abraham didn't think that we could go out there, but she flashed her fancy pin and used her Southern charm to give us a look. Naturally, we took a picture. See that straight row of green right in the middle? It's the National Mall leading to the Washington Monument. I know, fancy.

We also got to see TWO voting sessions in the House chamber. The House chamber is where the state of the union address is given. We were spitting distance from Nancy Pelosi. I can't say that I care for her, but she's kind of a big deal.

After we finished our tour, Mrs. Abraham treated us to lunch in the Congressional dining room. Also kind of a big deal.

Once we finished lunch, one of Dr. Abraham's aides took us on a tour and then back through the bowels into the Library of Congress.

But more on that later... Also on Day 1 we went to the Supreme Court, the Natural History Museum, and a fancy dinner with a walk through the snow.

Washington, D.C. - Sunrise in the American Rome

I did a lot of research and reading before we left for D.C. - checked out library books, scoured the internet, talked to other D.C. visitors, yet nothing quite prepared me for actually being in D.C. It really is America's version of Rome. There are historical buildings on every street and, of course, one walks. A lot. Granted, the splendor of D.C. was not equal to that of Rome, but it was certainly cleaner and there wasn't nearly the  mass of humanity we encountered in Rome. 

We got in to the city late Wednesday night and went straight to our hotel and sleep. I convinced Matt to get up early with me on Thursday to see the Lincoln Memorial at sunrise because all my books said that was a must-do experience. The whole walk there (in below 30 degree weather, mind you), I fretted because I could see the sun rising and I just knew that we were going to miss it. I whined quite a bit, actually. 

Spoiler alert: We didn't miss it. 

There weren't a whole lot of people on the streets but there were more (seriously dedicated) runners than I would have imagined since it was SO early and SO cold. We actually had Lincoln to ourselves for about ten minutes with the rest of the time interspersed with athletes. 

From inside the Lincoln Memorial, looking out at the Washington Monument. We were literally at Lincoln's feet.

After we saw Lincoln, we walked a few yards down to the Vietnam Memorial Wall. It was smaller than I imagined it to be, but once I started walking beside the panes with the names etched on them, it seemed so much longer. Too long. Neither Matt nor I actually knew anyone on those panes, but I don't think it lessened the impact. 

A look down the Vietnam Memorial Wall. The Wall is on the left. 

We kept walking down the Mall (that held no shops, BTW) and visited the World War Two Memorial which was only recently completed. We didn't get to see it in its full glory because the fountain was off but it was impressive. I don't have a picture of it here but feel free to google it.

The Washington Monument has 50 American flags encircling it to represent, you guessed it, the fifty states. Here they were all they way up, but there were still quite a few around the city at half-staff for Justice Scalia. 

After we left the Mall, we headed back to our hotel to put on fancy clothes and hoof it to the White House for an 8:30 tour. More on that later! Also, the Capitol building, lunch in the Congressional dining room, the Library of Congress, the Supreme Court and that's just part of the FIRST DAY!