Salvaging Monday

When we woke up in Washington DC on Monday morning, Jeff immediately got online to figure out what was open and what was not.  He discovered that the Library of Congress was not opening, which meant that our 8:30 guided tour was off.  Nothing was posted about the Supreme Court or the Capitol building.

So, we waited until about 8:30 and then phoned our congressman’s office.  To our great relief, our 10:00 Capitol tour was, indeed, still on.  Even better news was that the Smithsonian museums would be opening that day, as well!

Thankfully, our Monday of touring was salvaged!

We arrived at Capitol Hill around 9:30 and decided to head over to the Supreme Court, just in case it was open, so we could finalize our plans.  (In case you didn’t know, the Supreme Court building, the Library of Congress, and the Capitol building are all right next to each other but a bit off from other sights, which is why I scheduled them all on the same day.)  Jeff asked the guard on the steps the status and was informed that the building was, indeed, closed but would probably be open the next day.

As my dad wanted to meet when we were done touring to go to the National Archives with us, this was good to know, so we called him and arranged a meeting place and time.  Then, we headed to Congressman Aaron Schock’s office for our personal tour of the Capitol building.

 

A word of advice for anyone who wants to visit Washington DC:  USE YOUR CONGRESSMAN OR SENATOR!  You can simply go to their websites and find the link for planning a trip to the capitol city.  I submitted forms to both Representative Schock and Senator Dick Durbin. Both responded quickly, and both set up tours for the Library of Congress and the Capitol building, which gave us the choice of which ones to schedule.  You have to go through your congressman or senator to get a White House tour, and Aaron Schock’s office went the extra mile to get us scheduled (more on that later).  It’s easy, and they want to help! 

 

We were welcomed to Aaron Schock’s office by an intern, who took our coats and bags and told us that we could leave them in the office, so as to avoid any hassle when we started touring.  The office buildings are connected to the Capitol building by tunnels, so we wouldn’t have to worry about needing our coats.  Very cool!

Next, we met another intern and our tour guide, Ashley, a recent college graduate from Mackinaw, Illinois, a town not far from where we live.  She walked us underground to the Capitol building and proceeded to give us a fantastic tour of where her boss worked.  We were the only people with her, and we stood in no lines and came through back and side doors the whole time!

Some highlights…

This hall of marble statues.  Each state is entitled to two statues somewhere in the Capitol building.  Illinois’s statues are pictured below; actually, the state of Illinois is one of the only states to submit a woman, although I can’t remember who she is!

Of course, the Capitol dome is always a wonder.

 

We also enjoyed looking at the old congressional chamber, where we could see the location of Abraham Lincoln’s desk, among other note worthies.

We could also stand on the former exact center of Washington DC in the Capitol building.

Our final destination in the Capitol building should have been the House chambers, but, alas, they too had fallen victim to the federal government closure.  Ashley was a bit put out by this.  “They are supposed to be open, no matter what!” she informed us.  But she quickly rallied and asked if we’d rather see the Senate chamber.  As the Senate was still in session debating the Health Care Reform bill, its chambers were definitely open.

So, Ashley procured tickets, we went through two additional rounds of security in which we had to check our cameras, and we took a seat in viewing chamber.

Although we couldn’t take photos, this visit is noteworthy based on what we did not see.  The Senate was supposed to be in session at noon sharp, and it was.  However, there were only two senators in the chamber when this happened…the senator who drew the short straw to be presiding and the one who drew the other short straw to read a statement into the record, mostly for the sake of C-SPAN, we suspect.

We asked Ashley why there were only two of 100 people that showed up to work.  She told us that it was fairly normal; the senators show up to vote and if they want something in the record.

Unbelievable…our government at its best!  We watched about ten minutes of that nonsense and headed back out!

Our tour lasted a bit over two hours and was extremely interesting.  Even the kids, who have been studying American history this year, paid attention and asked intelligent questions.  We were proud of them!

At this point, we were running a bit behind in meeting my dad at the National Archives, so we hustled back to the office, took a quick tour there (Aaron Schock was back in Illinois for Christmas), thanked Ashley, and hoofed it over to where my dad was waiting.

And I’ll tell you about the rest of our Monday next time.