Year 4, July 24th, 2019: Washington, D.C. Day 1, Rainy Capitol Hill

Washington, D.C. Day 1.  Well, it's been over a week since that day, so we'll see what I can remember.  I'm sure the photos will help, that's why I take them!  And it's a good thing there's sometimes time in between the event and the blogging because then I forget the negative things that happen.  But Day 1 went very, very well until the end when there was some confusion when we accidentally split up because Aaron stopped for a coffee.  I stayed with Shauna and the rest of the crew walked on.  We hadn't planned for it and therefore Aaron, Shauna and I had 4 of the metro passes leaving one of the group without one.  And it started pouring rain just then as well.  Lots of miscommunication as to what metro station or intersection we were at, but we eventually met up and got back to our hotel around 9pm.  We had picked a hotel near the end of one of the metro lines so we could leave our cars in the parking lot for both days, although we couldn't officially check into our rooms until later.  Then we took their shuttle to the metro entrance just a few minutes away.  We had very kind and understanding hotel staff, too.

We had left Delaware around 7 am in order to catch the 10am shuttle ride to the metro station.  Gary and Shauna were able to figure out the metro passes easily with the help of the one of the employees.  For the most part, the metro passes worked and when they didn't, we went through the gates two at a time.  And no one loss a pass, thank goodness.  I could only imagine how most of the passengers do it every day.  But the times that we traveled were quiet except the last one going back because it was "rush hour."  Even so, the train wasn't terribly crowded and only a few of us had to stand.  The maps were easy to follow and the stations were fairly quiet and clean.  We used the orange line.  The train started above ground and then eventually became underground.  And now that I think of it, I think my mom parked somewhere in DC and then took the metro from one end of the Washington Mall to the other because I have no idea how she would have walked the 2 miles down and back up.  I also know I have a picture somewhere of a metro station on the street.

But despite my fears from the night before, getting in and out of the buildings in Washington went very smoothly.  They let us take everything in for the most part.  And even in the Capitol building when they asked if we had food, I was able to just say, "for medical purposes" and the employee even encouraged that.  It was obvious that we weren't actively eating and drinking in the buildings and that we were walking around as tourists for the day.  I was also able to control my blood sugars and headaches on both days, which was only by God's grace because they were long, hot days.  Just a few days before the heat index was over 100 degrees but on the days we were there, it was only 85 or 90.  On the first day, we were in the Capitol building on our tour with an intern from our Senator's office for a good portion of the day and was able to stay cool in the a/c.  We had started at the Supreme Court (we couldn't take any photos) and learned a ton there for that hour.  We also ate lunch at their cafe, which was an interesting experience.  The hot food service was very, very slow and I ended up eating a salad from the salad bar with cold chicken on it.  The prices were normally high for such a place but we all made it work because we had just a few minutes to spare until we had our Capitol building tour.

We were all able to go on that tour and our intern was very kind, but needed a few more history lessons.  Granted, Jared loves historical figures and knows many factoids, and I also know many interesting things about NH or certain people, and Leah loves her Civil War history, and Gary knows all about one of the politicians being a former preacher, etc.  So, we mutually educated one another.  Which, is kind of a testament to the lack of actual knowledge high school graduates know.  Oh well, he was just an intern.  After our tour behind the scenes, we were able to sit in the actual US Senate chamber while a vote was taking place.  They were stating the names of who was voting or who needed to vote or something, and Senator Jeanne Shaheen's name was called! Mrs. Shaheen was the first woman state governor of New Hampshire and has now been a New Hampshire Senator for oh, I think 12 years maybe? She is a liberal democrat, but that's ok.  I think Shauna said that one of the Kennedy's names were called as well.  I hadn't realized that the balcony in the Senate was in the round either.  We were sitting behind the front of the room, but could still see the Senator's desks and how the arrangements had changed based on political party.  They gave us a very nice booklet on the Senate and some of it's history.  I wished we could have sat longer and saw some actual history taking place.  Most of the activity was over in the House of Representatives because some kind of controversial hearing was going on so the Capitol was full and a buzz with that.

When we finally were done with the tour, we sat outside for just about 5 minutes for a quick snack and then it was off to walk some of the mall.  We took pictures from the backside of the Capitol building where the inauguration and other speeches have taken place.  And we look down the Washington Mall as well.  But then we veered off to a side street to the National Archives to see the real Declaration of Independence and Constitution and Bill of Rights.  It was about an hour before closing time, so we didn't get to explore the whole building.  However, just to be on the other side of these famous documents and to realize just how frail they are, how protected they are, and how important they are was breathetaking.  Jared said that he thinks that in case of emergencies, part of the documents' cases can drop down under the building and put in a bomb proof, fire proof, terrorist proof vault. How cool is that!  They have to have special blue lights in the cases to prevent the documents from fading even more.  There were many guards standing around the area as well.  I don't think I've ever seen guards watching over a piece of history like that before.  Even the displays were behind locked gates at night.  They also had some original letters from famous fore fathers and plenty of things to explain the progression of how these documents came to be.  Oh how I wish I could have actually read them!  Powerful moment there, although Abishai was at his wit's end and the kids could hardly take it in because they were getting tired and hungry.

We found a nice restaurant to eat at with regular downtown pricing.  But the atmosphere was friendly and our African American servers were the kindest and sophisticated human beings I have ever seen.  We stereotype black people to being gang thugs with their different type of "yo bro" speech, but there are some well educated black people that talk and act like well educated white people.  And since we live in a northern state, we don't get to interact with this sector of our population much.  I really appreciated the diversity in D.C. because we don't see that much at home.  After dinner was when the accidentally split happened and it started to pour rain.  But Aaron, Shauna and I happened upon the famous theater that Lincoln was shot in and the house across the street where he died.  I believe Leah had already been inside those places once.  Too bad my kids weren't with me.  But Aaron, Shauna and I dashed from one awning to the next trying not to get drenched.  I only had my big camera and my phone with me, but was still wearing my hoodie around my waste and was able to protect my head and camera with it.  Thank goodness!  We eventually reunited and took a silent late train back to the shuttle to take us to our hotel for the night.  I was so exhausted that I ended up going to bed two hrs before I normally do.  Keturah was beyond tired as well so she feel asleep quickly.  Abishai was ramped up from all the people time so it took him a bit to settle down.  And that was the end of Day !.

Washington, D.C. Playlist 7/24-25/2019

iPhone pics:

Delaware or Indiana?  Hm,...tough call! BTW, I finally know how to spell Delaware correctly because auto correct keeps correcting me, lol!

Quint towns.

Farm houses.

East Coast summer living.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge

The first time we went west on the bridge back to Maryland.  They adjust the direction of the lanes of traffic depending on the time of day.  So sometimes, the bridge with 3 lanes might have all 3 lanes going the same direction and sometimes it's 2 lanes one way and the 3rd lane goes the opposite way.  Plus they were working on the westbound land.

Remind you of any bridges you might recognize going onto PEI or in and out of Metarie, NOLA? 

Got to the hotel with 10 minutes to spare for the hotel shuttle to the metro.  Just enough to get organized and use the hotel restroom.  Then we told the attendant at the desk we would officially check in later that night.  Woot, woot for flexibility!

The Johnson 12 squished into a 15 person van.  It was worse on the way back in the evening because a family of 3 joined us.

Seatbelts? What seatbelts?  And Abishai sat on a lap.

Metro terminal, but it's also a terminal for the Amtrak high speed train from here to New York and/or Boston.  They just permanently canceled the Amtrak trains going from Indianapolis to Chicago.  It was taking the same amount of time to drive it by car.  I'm kind of sad because we never got to ride it with Abishai.  Oh well.

Hanging out on the Metro. 10:30am.  We didn't even have to wait very long because as soon as we got our metro passes and were through the turnstyle, the inbound to Washington. D.C. had arrived.

The train was full, but not squished like NYC or Chicago or something is.

He might not remember the L train in Chicago from last year, but he enjoyed this year's train rides.  Public transit is the way to go in large cities, that's for sure.  Sure you have to walk to your destination but you still have to do that when you park your car in a parking garage.

Lots of different trains run on this track, including cargo trains.

Our first view of Washington, D.C. was of the Washington Monument.  Wow!

Then we went underground as we approached downtown.  The metro was clean enough with no obvious signs of rats or homeless people or malfunctions.  It was very quiet, even at the terminals in town.

Up the escalator to street level.

The Supreme Court! It was our second photo op.  The first one being the copyright offices.

Lunch at the cafe in the Supreme Court.  It was a hidden gem on our way to the one of the Senate buildings.  We were able to find fresh food and eat in an air conditioned quiet booth.

I hope Abishai isn't like this all day!  We were sitting in a 20 minute presentation about the Supreme Court in the actual courtroom (you can't take pictures while in there) while Jared kept Abishai.  Jared was very good about being the keeper of Abishai and our stuff because he didn't care to see much of anything.

Lunch.

Our Indiana Senator's office!

The secret train that goes under the road from the senate building to the Capitol Building.  Boy was it fast!

My attempt at panaramas in the Capitol Building Rotunda.

My mom and I were here almost 21 years ago.  I broke down crying because she would have been proud of us for bringing the kids here, especially since Benaiah is the same age I was.

We just happened upon the Canadian Embassy!  Woot! Woot!

Check out the video in the playlist, but outside a news building, they had today's front page of probably 100 newspapers on display from around the world.  I think I only saw two out of probably 3 or 4 displays as we quickly walked past them.  The Union Leader from Manchester, NH!

The Boston Globe

New Orleans

Indianapolis!

Dinner restaurant.  Very chic, and priced like any Indianapolis downtown restaurant would be.  Awesome food though.  I had a deconstructed cheeseburger salad.

Drenched after our run in the rain!

Totally soaked, but my camera was safe!

No, I didn't pee my pants.  My pants were soaked from the rain!  It's a good thing I had my good sneakers on!

The wet and weary travelers.  No one wanted to talk to each other after having to deal with being lost in the rain.  It was probably going on 7:30pm by then.

These boards were very helpful to know when the train was coming.  Each train going the direction we needed to arrived every 30 minutes, so the wait wasn't too long.  Chicago had similar ones for their bus system.

Train tracks.  Dirty but not full of trash and no rats to be found.

Just find me my bed and piullow.

There were some malfunctions somewhere with escalators or something, but we were fine.

Playtime with his twin.

They insisted on standing.  It's fun to have a new experience.  None of us take public transportation on a regular basis in our hometowns.  Indianapolis has a bus system, but no subway.  It's been trying to put together a proposal for above ground transit by train from the Fishers/Noblesville area for years to no avail.  New Orleans has the trolley we went on last year and a bus system I believe.

So tired!

Ready for bed.

Hi, Justin.

And how's your life?

Still a bit rainy when we got off the train.

First day of walking.  I actually expected a bit more but we stood a lot of the time while in the capitol building.

We at first thought they said "Greenwood" on our train ride into the city.  We were wrong.

Somebody added CH to Everly's name when adding it as a stop on the train route.

Twins.

I'm reading the map, Grandpa!

While waiting for the shuttle van to come pick us up, Jared let Abishai run up and down the sidewalk under the awning.  He had ridden in the wagon or was carried most of the day. He needed to run!

Bike racks are fun!

Waiting for the van.  Because it was already pretty late, the van came when we called for it.  The next evening, it wouldn't come until the top of the hour because it was earlier in the evening, so we had to wait at least 30 minutes for it.

Cool bubble/water displays that changed color outside of the hotel.

Asleep in just a few minutes.  I had refused to bring their swimwear although there was an outdoor pool because I knew we would be getting back late and they would be physically exhausted.  I was right.

I don't know how much longer this will last, but it's become our typical set up.  These two in the same room with us and the older two boys share a bed in Grandma and Grandpa's room.

DSLR pics:

Police motorcycles!  Except Abishai didn't care too much.

There was a TON of construction all around the area on the outside of the buildings.  I don't know if this happens every summer but it made it hard to take good photos unless you were at certain angles.

Washington, D.C. flowering trees.  Don't ask me to identify them all, but I know they are famous, especially the pink ones in spring.

This is the patent office/copyright office so Grandpa's copyrighted materials are in their system here.

The Capitol right across the street from the Supreme Court.

Traditional Washington, D.C. lamppost.

Apparently these went in in the last few years, but they help deter people from going the wrong direction towards the buildings the president and high profile politicians use.  They will only go down with certain special badges and what not.  I've never seen a security system like that before.

The Supreme Court.

Wow, these things have been here for 200 years?!  Imagine what it was like to design and build these things and how they looked when they were new! 

Grated gate.

Very educational hallway with portraits of past chief justices.  Your portrait goes up when you retire, the busts are made when you pass away I believe.  I think that's how it goes.  There hasn't been many chief justices because once they are up on the bench, they are usually there for years and years. All of this was explained in the 20 minute talk, but I have forgotten most of it since it's been over a week.  I'm sure it's easy enough to google.

Heading upstairs.

Gorgeous tiled ceiling.  Again, imagine how much this cost back then and look how brand new it looks!

Gorgeous stairwell.

Office of our Indiana Senator.  There's our Indiana seal!

And our Indiana flag!

An old mail slot.  I doubt it's used today with the invention of  email.

Secret passageways under the senate buildings so Senators and their entourages can move quickly if necessary.

One of the original people movers in the basement of the buildings.

Our turn to ride the train car under the road!

The newly renovated lobby of the Capitol building.  Lots and lots of statues and lines.

This is why I shouldn't wait this long to journal.  I don't remember who this is.  Lady Liberty?  I think this the mock up for the one that's on top of the building, which is bigger than the Statue of Liberty.  And next to her is our young tour guide, an intern for our US Senator.

All over the public access areas of the Capitol Building were statues donated by each state, so none of them looked uniform.  They were of whatever the state had deemed as famous people representing their state, typically politicians.  At one point, they were all housed in one room, but then the floor began to bow from all the weight, so they put them in different areas.  We didn't have time to find both of the NH ones or the NOLA ones since our tour guide was focusing on famous Indiana people.

The geographical center of Washington, D.C. which is directly under the floor of the famous rotunda.

A copy of the Magna Carta signed in 1066 that established that the people can be governed by a set of laws and the King has to abide by them as well.  It's of course an English document, but ironically, it set precedence for our own founding documents.  Kids, it's important to know your history and how you can't do what you do today without other things coming first.

A sad and tired Lincoln.

They were glazed over for protection, but imagine all the polictians that have stepped on these stones.  Everyone from your US History books.  Oh the stories these bricks could tell.

One of the NH statues.

I think they resemble each other a little bit, lol.  And why is an English prime minister's bust in our capitol building?  Just because of his high influence in our dealings in World War II.

A happier Lincoln.  This bust is in an out of the way spot where it is believe Lincoln came down from the chambers to rest and get of the noise.  Remember, there was no air conditioning, so the chambers were physically hot and the discussions and arguments were even hotter.

Stairs going up to the chambers.

It's amazing how much turnover there is, on purpose, in Congress, so these signs change often.  But we did see lots of currently famous people's names around the building.

Timeless design.

Stairs to the House of Representatives.  There was a hearing or trial of some sort going on, but our guide wanted to show us these stairs.

It is believed that these are the stains from blood splatters because a couple of reps were killed on these stairs as they came out of the chamber.

If you look closely you'll notice how worn the edges of these stairs are.  Incredible how many people have gone up and down these stairs in the past 200 years!

No, not bullet holes, but damage done during a fire in these area of the building.  Everything burned except the stone of course.  But some of the stone was knocked lose or something and fell.

One of the original supreme court rooms.  I think it was part of the House of Representatives or maybe the Senate when those chambers were small.  But as the nation grew, the facilities needed to grow with it.  Thus the Senators and Reps have their offices in other buildings.

Lots of important Supreme Court decisions were made in here.

If you shine the light just right, you can see cat pawprints.  Why? Well, when this building was made, there was a rodent infestation and the workers would bring in feral cats to go after them.  And one stepped in the wet cement.

Cool plaque about the Morse Code.

You can feel the naturally cool air coming up through the vent. 

More stairs as we head up the secret way to the famous Rotunda.

There it is!  Just the dome itself, not including the walls is many stories tall! But it's an optical illusion as well.

THE original paintings you find reprints of in your history textbooks.  I wish we could have stayed longer or gone back into this room.

It took me a few minutes of overhearing a conversation, but it finally dawned on me that THIS was the room that Billy Graham laid in state (February 2018)  while Michael W. Smith sang.  Pres. George H. W. Bush also laid here in December 2018, and Senator John McCain in August 2018, among many others.  I got a little giddy after that.  I had watched both Bush and Graham's ceremonies on YouTube livestream and now I can better envision the events.  Cool!

Do you want a quick review of ancient and modern history?  This is it!  From Moses (who the guide downplayed as a law maker/giver) to the Wright brothers, lots of history in between.

Statue of Ronald Reagan, including dust from the Berlin Wall that was used as a layer in the base.  And yes, the dust does come off sometimes.  How cool!

Our pass to watch the Senate floor from the gallery.

The front of the Capitol building.  It really is super tall in the middle.  Taller than the Statue of Liberty!

The backside or more famous side of the Capitol Building. This is where inaugurations happen and swearing in ceremonies and protests and a whole host of other things.  Not much activity today except for some people setting up or tearing down something to promote military recruitment.

Down the lawn towards the Lincoln Memorial.

Everybody was already tired and moody, so here's the best Christmas card picture we could come up with that day.

Our Canadian in front of the Canadian Embassy.

"O, Canada!"

Outside the newspaper offices, whatever it was called.  I can't remember if it was a general building for all news media or a specific newspaper, but the displays of newspapers from around the world were awesome! 

Pennsylvania Ave.

That newspaper building again.

Walking somewhere.

The restaurant we went to.  Beef, Bourbourn, and B?

A mouse!

The FBI building!

We found shelter in the Ford Theater Doorway.  That's the theater where Lincoln was shot.

A whole museum dedicated to Lincoln and the house where he was taken and where he died I believe.  Imagine someone knocking on your door pushing it in saying the President has been shot and we are taking care of him in your house.  Eek!

We found the metro!  And then finally figured out where everyone was and how to get on the train to meet up with them.  Thankfully there was this huge covered area outside a building where many people took shelter and we could get our wits about us.  Phew, what a long, mind blowing, fact filled, historical day!

The End