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| The Capitol |
On Tuesday, Day 4, we had a Capitol tour scheduled with our state representative's office. I booked this tour by going to our state rep's website and emailing his office to request a tour. I figured it would be fun for the kids to interact with the office of our representative who has a home office just down the street from us! Note: These tours are free! I would definitely recommend booking a tour to guide you through the building. You can also book them through your senator's office, or with the
Capitol itself.
However, we ran into a snag--we packed lunches for the kids most days this visit because we're gone all day, and so we don't stress about finding food while out and about. The whole trip we were able to find meals, but there's not as many options just walking around the National Mall cso we pack them just in case. It's fine going in most places with closed lunchboxes and water bottles. EXCEPT the Capitol, which for excellent and understandable reason, has security tighter than the TSA. No food or drink containers allowed.
We'd planned to stow our items in lockers at the Library of Congress across the street, since there is a tunnel to the Capitol and we would be going there afterward anyway. But on this day, the Uber took extra long to pick us up, traffic was exceptionally bad, and we arrived right at the time we needed to be meeting the staffers. The security line at the Library of Congress was around the building.... so that was a problem.
Thankfully, and to my deep embarrassment, the staffer was really really nice, and she was able to get us through security at the Capitol. The kids felt like celebrities when the staffer and her 3 interns in tow pulled us out of the Capitol security line to go through a different line!
I'm sharing this story for any travelers planning to visit the Capitol. Give yourself like an hour to go through security at the Library of Congress if you have any of the items on
this list and want to go into the Capitol. Otherwise, leave those items at home!
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| Replica of the Freedom statue on the top of the building. |
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| Old Senate Chamber |
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| the rotundas are so beautiful |
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| Presidents take photos on these stairs! |
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| National Statutory Hall |
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| With a Texas statue! Sam Houston |
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| Rosa Parks |
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| Thomas Edison |
We were able to go to the House Gallery and sit in on a session. Extra extra security (of course) and no electronics or cameras. They had just recessed for lunch, but it was very cool to sit in that room. I feel like if I lived in DC, I probably would go there to watch the goings-ons all the time. LOL That was my favorite part of the tour!
We spent about 90 minutes in the Capitol.
After our time in the Capitol, we walked through the tunnels to the
Library of Congress. We had a free time-stamped entry and got there right on time. This is the most extensive library in the world, and it spans multiple buildings. We stuck to the main building, and the kids were given a scavenger hunt paper for the visit. There were lots of QR codes connected to audio tour guides around the space.
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| A GUTENBERG BIBLE! |
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| The Main Reading Room was so very cool. |
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| Thomas Jefferson's personal library once replaced the books in the Library of Congress after they were burned in a fire. |
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| My bibliophile heart was so happy! |
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| View out the window at the library |
We spent about an hour at the Library of Congress. You can reserve time in the Reading Room, but you have to be over 16 (I believe). I just wanted to see the space!
We had planned to eat lunch at the Library of Congress cafe, but it's in another building. We walked all the way around that building and eventually did get in, but the security guards both said the cafe wasn't worth eating at (LOL) so we decided to walk toward our next stop, the Air & Space Museum that was about 1.2 miles down the National Mall. Google said there was a Jimmy John's on the way. Joke was on us--it was in an official-looking building with security (Meaning scanners and metal detectors). They did say we were allowed in as the general public, but we were surrounded by people working on Capitol Hill. We even passed the House Ways & Means Committee room! That was the least expensive meal we had on our trip, and we were surrounded by young interns eating their lunches. But the building was cool!
Wilder's top sites to see for this trip were the air and space museums. On this day, we went to the
National Air And Space Museum in DC. We had (free) time-stamped entry, but for being one of the most popular Smithsonian museums, it didn't feel too crowded. Lots of airplane and space enthusiasts. Wilder was in his element!
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| Racing a racecar |
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| This is THE Wright Flyer, considered the crown jewel of all Smithsonian artifacts! |
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| Neil Armstrong's space suit! |
We were tired from all the sightseeing, so we stopped for coffee and cookies in the Mars Cafe at the museum. We stayed fro 2 pm to close at 5:30 p.m., and didn't quite see everything, but had a great time.
We met up with my San Antonio friend Ariel that evening--we grew up going to the same church, and she's lived in Washington D.C. for years. While we waited to meet up, we sat in the cool green grass on the National Mall and encountered an albino squirrel!
We had sushi in Chinatown at
Absolute Noodle - it was such nice weather and we enjoyed sitting outside! Really good sushi, too.
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| On theme - Japanese old fashioned! |
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| Ariel! |
While sitting outside with our dinner, a man walked by and made eye contact with Wilder. He spoke with us, gave a motivational speech and was really nice to Wilder. And gave him a brand-new ball cap. We gave him $ for it (he was asking for donations), and it became Wilder's favorite souvenir of the trip.
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| Metro ride back to the Pattersons with his new cap! |
