We had a 10:30 appointment for a tour of the Capitol by a staff member of Senator Dan Coats’ office. I had concerns – how in the world would we get there in time?? We left around 8:40 expecting the worst and were pleasantly surprised to have a very smooth trip into D.C. Traffic got heavier the closer we got to the city, but it still wasn’t bad.
We might’ve been feeling a little over-confident by our quick trip; we were parking our 2 big vans at 9:45 – 45 minutes before our 10:30 meeting time at Senator Dan Coats’ office. We thought we’d be there in plenty of time, but sometimes we forget how long it takes to move this many people around. In spite of feeling a little rushed, it was still thrilling to walk toward this amazing building we’ve so many time in pictures.
After a couple of attempts to enter what ended up being the wrong entrance, we found out we weren’t even in the right building. Senator Coats’ office was across the street in the Russell Senate office Building.
After a few more wrong entrances, we finally found ourselves at the right spot.
By this time, it was getting very close to 10:30 and we still needed to go through a metal detector. All 20 of us! There was a clock prominently displayed right next to the entrance that read 10:25.
Mick got a call from a staffer at Senator Coats’ office wondering how close we were. “We’re in the building!” We were all scurrying by this time, throwing jewelry, loose change, cell phones, belts, etc. onto the conveyor belt and several of us making numerous attempts to get through the detector without lights and sirens.
Once we all got through, we were able to move quickly and made it just past 10:30.
The tour ended up being about an hour and a half long. It was all so interesting and amazing. I took way more pictures than I’m posting on this blog. I’ll just post a couple of my favorites.
These were taken in the Rotunda. The amazing painting behind us is called “The Baptism of Pocahantas.” It was even more spectacular in person. The Rotunda was filled with mammoth paintings of historic events just like this one.
This next picture was at the very top of the Rotunda. I zoomed in as much as I could and got a pretty clear shot of George Washington.
This is the famous painting of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
Our guide told us that although Thomas Jefferson and John Adams were allies in their later years, there was a lot of animosity between them at this point. The artist demonstrated that by painting Jefferson stepping on Adams’s foot.
These pictures were taken in the room which was the original location of the Supreme Court. Much of the furniture is authentic, some is reproduction. It was a beautiful room and the pictures turned out surprisingly well, in spite of how dark the room was.
Here are a few pictures of most of us sitting in the Rotunda. It was very crowded and there was a bit of a wait at times.
We ended up finishing the tour right around noon, about 20 minutes before a historic vote in the Senate. We walked right past the line of people waiting to go in and watch the results. It was tempting to go in, but we had a lot of tired, hungry kids, so we ended up leaving.
The kids enjoyed relaxing back at the Ramseys for the rest of the afternoon.
That looks like so much fun! I'm glad you made it on time.
ReplyDeleteGreat pictures, as usual! The paintings were breathtaking!!
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