D.C. - Day 5

Thursday morning we were able to get into a tour of the Capital Building at 9 am. We were up on Capital Hill early before anyone and it was cool having it to ourselves. Got some good pics. The tour was also very cool. We had a great guide! They give you headsets w/the guide miked in so it stays fairly quiet.

It's still kinda a zoo in there with all the different tours, security guards, and workers. They're very strict about where you stand so we stay out of people's way and keep things moving. Don't even try to wander off either. One guy in our group tried to (I think just to get a picture) and got yelled at haha. We also lucked out in that this was the first week they were letting people back into the Rotunda (dome) after being closed for a long time for repairs. Did you know the dome is made of Cast Iron?!? Best material of the times... crazy. Awesome building though. They really knew how to build em back then.

From the tour we took a nifty little tunnel straight from the Capital Building to the Library of Congress. When we popped out the other side they were just starting public tours. Perfect timing. This building is just ridiculous inside. So ornate! The architects were geniuses and instead of planning for all the details on the interior they just made a basic framework and had artists come in and paint/sculpt/etc. different areas. So cool and so pretty. We got to see the Gutenberg Bible and the first map that labels the New World as America. Both really awesome.

Before we left Capital Hill we walked over to the Supreme Court building, just to see it. As we were leaving we saw a bunch of people/press gathering at the bottom of the steps were the Senate comes out. We went over there and sat on the grass for a while hoping to see em, but it was taking a while so we left. As we were leaving the grounds we were stopped by security and saw a motorcade race by and pull into the Capital under the front steps. A guy next to us asked the guard who it was and the guard responded, "I can't say, but you can probably guess." It was the VP baby! Drove by right in front of us!

Our next stop was the National Archives Building. (Sidenote: I'm dumb and thought  the Declaration, Constitution, and Bill of Rights are housed in the Library of Congress. Wrong-O. They're in the Nat'l Archives.) Luckily we hit it right at lunch time so there was no line. The Building was huge and I'm sure there are lots of cool things to see, but all we wanted to see were the "big 3" located in the Rotunda.

Again, another beautiful room. They have lots of security here. 2 guards stand on either side of the constitution! They're also very serious about no photography. The lights are kind of dim, to protect the documents I assume. It was cool to see. I'm very surprised with how faded they are; you can hardly read the Declaration!

OK we are dorks. Between the Library of Congress and the National Archives we kept thinking about the movie National Treasure with Nicholas Cage and cracking all these jokes about "stealing the Declaration." That movie man... it truly is a national treasure haha.

Lunch was a yummy sandwich shop over near the White House and the remainder of the afternoon was spent at the National Air and Space Museum. We walked in around 2:30 and jumped into a tour group for the last 30 min of the tour about space travel. Loved it. The museum is honestly a bit dated. All the space stuff was awesome to see though. I mean they have a real Lunar Lander and Command Module! We saw a show in the planetarium. It was a bit kiddie, but I always love them non the less. John fell asleep for a bit haha. As we made our way through the museum the coolest part for me was just seeing all these full size planes inside the building suspended from the ceiling! You don't see that every day haha.

 

After the museum it was then back to the hotel for, you guessed it, another nap. That evening one of my college teammates and her husband picked us up (they live like 20 min outside the city) and we went to diner. Went to this awesome restaurant called Medium Rare that only serves one thing. Salad, steak, and fries. It was delish! If ya do one thing it's gotta be good right?

Afterwords we went to a dessert place that specializes in making what they call Cereal Ice Cream. Tastes like ice cream that's been made from milk soaking in Corn Flakes. It was disgusting. We found a gelato place that was much better. I got a flavor that tasted exactly like nutella. It was very fun catching up with friends and getting a "local's" take on D.C.