Touristas 2

In case you didn't know it, look on the right side of the page and you will see where I posted other day's blogs.

14 Oct 09—My plan today was to see and tour both the Capital and the Supreme Court, but we didn’t even finish touring the Capital in one day. We saw the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress across from the Capital, but we will have to do that tour another day. We didn’t even finish with the Capital today…have to go back tomorrow. I am totally amazed at the beauty of these buildings. This is a picture of me talking to "my fellow Americans". This 1st picture is the view you see of the Capital when they are swearing in the President.

You see these buildings on TV, but nothing quite prepares you for seeing them in person. In addition to the Lincoln Memorial, these buildings are incredibly big. They look like a lot of the buildings I saw overseas when I was in Greece and Rome. Majestic is the only word I can think of to describe them! And I had no idea that you could literally walk from the Capital to the Supreme Court in about 5 minutes.

When Cathy and I came up First Street and I had the Capital on my left and the Court on my left, I must admit that I actually started crying a little. Of course Cathy doesn’t get it (haha), but what these institutions represent really overwhelms me. I would honestly give my right arm to work here!

Anyway, we had signed up for the Capital tour the night before, so we got in with no problem, straight into Emancipation Hall...this is Sojourner Truth.

(Sorry, I didn't turn this picture before I uploaded it)

and then our tour guide took us to the Rotunda, Statuary Hall, and the Crypt area of the building. The Rotunda you have seen on TV a hundred times…that is where someone lies in state when they die (like Ronald Reagan and Rosa Parks). The painting at the top is called the Apotheosis of George Washington, which actually means the glorification of George Washington.

He is surrounded by 13 women that represent the original 13 states, and then 2 more women, one with a horn and another with a piece of paper, that represent Victory and Liberty, respectively. Below that there are 3D paintings representing 400 years of history…what a room!!! Statuary Hall is what it sounds like…a bunch of statues of famous Americans…actually every state can have 2 statues representing them at any one time…so the ones that don’t fit here are strewn throughout different rooms of the Capital.

Finally, we went to the Crypt, below which is an empty tomb, originally built to house the remains of George Washington. The tomb is empty though, because George said in his will that he wanted to remain at Mt Vernon.

Cathy and I didn’t have tickets to go to the House or Senate galleries to hear the politicians giving their speeches, so we were directed outside to the Senate office buildings. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson’s office (she is one of the 2 Texas senators) was in the Russell Senate Office Building, so we went in there to her office and got tickets to both the Senate and House galleries on another day. I couldn’t believe that we were able to walk all around this building once we got in. We saw the offices of quite a few senators…John Kerry, John McCain, and Lindsay Graham just to name a few. We are going to go back to the Capital again tomorrow to sit in the galleries…I hope we get on TV!!! If anyone is watching C-Span let me know. Haha This is me outside McCain's office.

So Cathy and I so far are having a ball! I should say that Cathy is having a good time, and I am having the time of my life!!! Today was really quite emotional for me…God bless America!!!