Short Day

15 Oct 09—Out and about again today, though we got a later start than usual. Not only were we later than I like to be leaving the RV, but just as we were going out the door my friend Barb called saying she had just seen on the TV that the President was flying out to New Orleans, so Cathy and I road around the perimeter of the base looking along the flight line for Air Force One. Couldn’t find it! Someone ultimately told us that he had left earlier in the morning, so we will have to hope to see it and him another day.

So 45 minutes later, we head downtown. As soon as we get off the train we first had to go to the bathroom, so we ducked into the Cannon House Office Building and looked for one in there. It is amazing how they let you in for no reason. As soon as we were thru, we decided to take a little tour for ourselves, passing the offices of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Shultz, a democrat that is on the TV talk shows a lot, and then we passed Congresswoman Michelle Bachman’s office, the republican lady that keeps questioning whether the President is an American citizen…it is amazing that she actually got re-elected! Also in that hallway were the offices of Zoe Lofgren, so I started to wonder if the ladies were being relegated to a certain wing (only joking).

We spent time in both the Senate and House Galleries. I found the hallways leading to the galleries of both chambers more impressive than the galleries themselves. They have beautifully tiled floors and sculpted ceilings, whereas the floor area of the Senate and House just looked really small. Just as we were going into the Senate Gallery, Senator Debbie Stabenow was leaving the floor, so we missed her speaking, but after a few minutes Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio came up to speak…about health care. The speaking wasn’t really very interesting, but the Senate Chamber itself, as I said before, was a whole lot smaller than it looks on TV. In the House there were quite a few people speaking back and forth, something about water for California that the Dems were “for” and the Republicans were “against”. (What else is new, right?) We were actually sitting in the gallery near where you usually see the president’s wife sit during the State of the Union. I would love to be there when they are all speaking and voting on healthcare or something else important. I loved being there, but it is definitely more impressive on TV…looks a lot larger, especially the podium from which the President would be speaking. I figure it must have to do with camera angles. Here is a picture we cropped together of the whole Capital building...it is really something! You can click on it to enlarge it.

Also, here is a picture of the Statue of Freedom...it is displayed in the Capital's Exhibition Hall, and was used to make the mold for the actual statue on top of the Capital's dome.

The weather stinks….cold and rainy, and is supposed to stay that way thru Saturday at least. Hope to get to the Supreme Court and Library of Congress tomorrow. Tune in!