Archives and Congress

We started the day at the National Archives. We were among the first in the building and went straight to the Rotunda. We enjoyed being in the presence of the documents that form the foundation of our Government. I definitely wonder what the Founding Fathers would think of our country today! We saw some of the other exhibits in the Archives, which were also interesting. Record keeping is no joke!

From there we went to the Capitol and had lunch. It was always our favorite of the places in the mall area to eat and it did not disappoint (and, surprisingly, it was a lot cheaper than the Natural History Museum). After lunch, we did the Capitol tour. Again, we were surrounded by middle school field trips. The kids sitting in front of us during the introductory movie spent the entire film chatting and looking at their phones. I wonder if their parents would would feel bummed they spent so much to send them on this trip if they knew? Based on what I've seen over the past few days, the kids are enjoying being around their friends, but aren't really taking in much history. Yes, I'm being judgey, but it is annoying!

Fortunately, they separated us into five groups for the tour and our group was all the families (the other four were all 8th graders). The Rotunda was absolutely amazing. The dome painting is the size of a basketball court and the Statute of Liberty would fit in the Rotunda with 30 feet to spare. It is incredibly massive! The architecture and art work are stunning.

After the tour, we went in the exhibit area, which was interesting. I don't think we have been in there before. While there, I overheard one of the workers talk about getting tickets to view the House and Senate sessions. We decided to skip our tour of the Library of Congress and went on a quest to get Gallery viewing tickets. We talked to a Senate liaison who gave us the numbers of our two Senators. Senator Rubio's staff answered the phone and said they would be happy to give us passes. So, we headed over to the Russell office building. It was pretty cool to walk around the office building of our Senators. We got the tickets and went back to the Capitol. Then, we waited in long line for about 40 minutes. Not surprisingly, we were behind a huge group of middle schoolers. Yes, I know they have just as much right to be there as I do, I just want to complain. 

We had to go through another layer of security before going into the Senate viewing area and no electronics were allowed (so, no pictures). While there we got to hear Senator Durbin (Senior Senator from Illinois and Senate Majority Whip) give an impassioned speech about how Supreme Court Justices are not held to any ethical standards. It is insanely crazy what Justice Thomas has received from a single billionaire donor, including a vacation on a private jet and superyacht valued at $500,000. It is honestly alarming. And, that was just one example (albeit an egregious one). I agreed with everything Senator Durbin said about the court and the need for them to be held to a higher ethical standard. I enjoyed his speech. Oddly, almost no one, other than those of us in the viewing gallery, were there to hear it. Senator Durbin said he wanted to get it on record, but where was everyone? At times he spoke to us in the Gallery, which I thought was pretty cool.

After that, we went into the House's viewing area. The room itself was not as pretty as the Senate room, but it was still very cool to be there. There were only about 15 Representatives present. Two were talking about moving some bills forward. They did a voice votes (all unanimous yays). It was interesting to see the formality, even with just a few representatives in the room, i.e "would the Gentle women from Missouri like to yield her time?".  I asked when we left and was told that people don't usually show up unless it is for a final vote. It makes me very curious about how the sausage gets made behind closed doors.

By now, it was after 5 and we took the metro back to the stop near our rental. The metro was super crowded with rush hour commuters. We picked up dinner from Giant and ate at the apartment. Only 7.5 miles walked today. 

And, some of the days photos:

We have a print of this one at home. I will need to take a picture in front of ours.

Anna (and Thomas) in the original Senate chambers.

The amazing ceiling. The room was built as a tomb for George Washington, but he wanted to be buried at Mount Vernon.

A zoomed in version of the painting. It is 4600 square feet and Washington (in the middle) is 17 feet tall! The scale is insane!