Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Left the house this morning at 8:15. Traffic this morning was pretty crazy and added about 10 minutes to our drive into the metro DC. Finding the reserved parking spot was a little hectic. Should have left at 8:00. But in the end it was okay. We did end up hoofing it to the Capitol Building from our parking spot to make our first appointment.

We had reservations to meet with Senator Cruz’, Senator Young’s, and Senator Braun’s offices. Since the Senate is out of session this week we were only able to meet with their aides. Once it was all said and done we did a lot of hurrying up and waiting around the Senate offices. Bunch of hillbilly Hoosiers cluttering up the hallways.

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Bridget Dotson was Senator Braun’s aide who gave up the tour of the Capitol Building. She was relatively new to Senator Braun’s office and had served on Senator Young’s staff prior to Braun’s election. She did a great job on our tour.

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The Capitol Building is truly a magnificent building! So much history and art. I was impressed with the way the old was preserved and the story of the legislative branch was told. How the states we’re represented by the statues of important people from each state was very impressive.

On the tour we saw the former Senate gallery and the former Supreme Court. The Capitol rotunda (the room under the big dome) was so massive and awesome, but it was also very difficult to capture in pictures. We also got to see the steps where presidents walk down before being inaugurated and the balcony overlooking where newly-inaugurated presidents give their address. Just an incredible tour of an amazing building.

We also had gotten passes to see the Senate gallery and House gallery, but no photos were allowed in these areas. We only had time to visit the Senate gallery. Cool to say that we had been there.

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After the Capitol Building tour we headed back to the van. It was off to Mt. Vernon! I had made plans earlier to meet up with my cousin Barbara and her two boys as well. We didn’t know whether or not they would be able to make it, but they were able to join us on the tour! A quick stop for lunch at Subway in Alexandria and it was off to the park.

Once again, there was so much history at this site and so much to see and hear about and so little time. George Washington was a truly amazing and forward-thinking man. We were so fortunate to have him at that time in our nation’s history.

The house itself evolved quite a bit over the years. And it had been very well preserved. There was no photography permitted inside the house so I was only able to shoot the outside.

Also on the property was George and Martha Washington’s tomb. There was actually the original resting place and the final tomb built to his specifications. We’d found out earlier in the day that there was some discussion about burying him at the Capitol Building against his wishes of being buried in Virginia. Very sobering to be there.

We would have liked to have seen more but time would not allow. The park grounds started to close at 4:00. So we headed for the education center at the entrance of the park. There was a lot of information at this center as well. I wish we would have had more time to spend here.

We got to talking with a group that had come over from China. They were interested in hearing about Vivian’s adoption and thanked us quite a bit for adopting her. It was very special and they bonded with her pretty closely in such a short amount of time.

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When we are finished we headed into Alexandria with Barbara and her boys to eat dinner. We took a walk around Old Towne Alexandria for about 45 minutes or so and then headed to Murphy’s Irish Restaurant for dinner. We were able to meet up with Barbara’s husband Dwayne as well. Dinner was excellent and we had a great time.