Washington, D.C. - Day 2

I scheduled a U.S. Capitol tour with an intern in the office of our congressman at 2:00. We got into town early enough to go over to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing to see if we could do a tour, but the line was an hour and a half long. They only take 40 people every 15 minutes and there were 220 people in line. So, we backtracked all the way to the Capitol. The kids were not thrilled about that. We did walk through this garden though, which the kids thought was really pretty.

On the way, we passed the Department of Agriculture building, which is enormous. It amazes me how many gigantic buildings are here. Many occupy an entire city block.

We went to John Carter's office in the Rayburn building, an office building across the street from the Capitol. His office was on the first floor and we got there about 20 minutes early.

Our tour guide just graduated from Texas A&M and was a super nice guy. He's there on some kind of agriculture internship program. He said about 50 A&M graduates were there interning in D.C. He took us on a 1.5 hour tour and we got to see some really cool stuff that I don't think we would have been able to without him.

This is a full-size replica of the "Statue of Freedom", which is the bronze statue on top of the Capitol.

This is directly under the dome, but on the ground floor, so there is a ceiling. You can see a star in the middle of the floor that is roped off because so many people have stood directly on it that it is now depressed in the ground. You could tell it was sunken. This room is also encircled in statues of people from various states. Christian (our tour guide) explained to us that every state can have two statues of their choice in the Capitol. Our first statue is of Stephen F. Austin, which, unlike all the other statues in this room, is smaller and actually life-size.

The senate moved out of this room and it then became the U.S. Supreme Court chamber. I can't remember when...a long time ago.

The House Appropriations Committee meeting room.

Christian pointed out that this statue of Lincoln is missing an ear and his beard. He said that Lincoln received a letter from an 11 year-old girl suggesting that he grow a beard to improve his appearance. This seems to be a true story (Grace Bedell).

The Capitol rotunda.

This is some adjoining room. We got a little mixed up and it was difficult to keep track of all the rooms.

Our second statue - Sam Houston.

This statue of Reagan was really cool. If you look closely, there is a thin layer of rock in the base that is composed of pieces of the Berlin wall after it came down (obviously).

We also got to see the House and Senate chambers, but no photography was allowed.

There is a tunnel between the Capitol and the Library of Congress, although I believe it is actually above ground. I didn't mention it earlier, but we also took a tunnel from the Rayburn building to the Capitol. There seems to be a little city underground connecting all of these buildings. We were lost and Christian said it took him quite some time to figure out how to get where he needed to go. This is the Library of Congress directly behind the Capitol Building and next door to the Supreme Court.

This is the main reading room. We were in an observation room on the second floor. You can use the main reading room, but you have to register and jump through some hoops.

They had an exhibit (not sure if it's permanent) about Thomas Jefferson's personal library. Apparently, there was a fire at the Library of Congress at some point, so Thomas Jefferson, who had the largest private book collection in the United States, sold his entire collection to the library. Later, there was another fire which destroyed many of those books. This is a reproduction of that collection. Most of these are original books from Thomas Jefferson's collection. Others are the same book pulled from the library stacks and others are from other libraries. It was impressive.

The two primary exhibits, in my opinion, are two bibles, The Giant Bible of Mainz and The Gutenberg Bible. The Giant Bible of Mainz was hand-written by a scribe in about 1452. It took him about 15 months to complete. It is famous for its beauty and for being one of the last manuscript bibles written before the invention of printing in the west.

The Gutenberg Bible was the first major book printed using mass-produced movable type. It was done around 1455. In an interesting contrast, it's estimated that this Bible also took about 15 months to print, but 200 were printed instead of only the one done by hand. Since its publication, 49 copies survive and they are considered the most valuable books in the world although no complete copy has been sold in 38 years.

When you exit the Library of Congress on ground level, you are directly next to The Supreme Court and behind the Capitol. You can see The Statue of Freedom on top of the Capitol.

The Supreme Court, which is directly behind the Capitol Building. It was closed, but we hope to tour it later this week.

When you get off the train at the last stop on our way home, we drive right by FedEx Field where the Washington Redskins play. Mike said I should burn it down. As I write this, the Cowboys are 5-1 and have already beaten the Redskins this year...just sayin' :)