We were in Washington, DC! The capitol of our country.
When you go to the Capitol during the off season, you get to see construction and upkeep.
We were excited to see everything.
We had scheduled a tour of the Capitol Building so we headed to the entrance of the building first. Just remember you can’t bring any food (even snacks) in. We spent a good 10 minutes sitting outside eating our snacks.
We were finally able to pass security and had a grand time checking out the building. We might have been able to get through security with our snacks but we’re rule followers. We quickly realized we’d have to go through security a lot in DC.
The free tours were a plus. We got there at a great time too since there was barely a line. We had a great time listening to the stories and history of the building.
There were statues every where!
We were fortunate to see the rotunda.
The painting above is the drafting committee presenting their draft of the Declaration to Congress.
We wanted to see the House of Representative and Senate Rooms so we had to go to our Senator and ask for passes to enter the rooms.
We walked out of the Capitol Building for a short stroll to our Senator’s Building. We walked by the Supreme Court Building!
Congress was in recess because of the upcoming election. We ended up only looking at the Senate room. It was huge. There was someone available to answer any questions guests had. They did not allow pictures in the room in part due to tradition (we asked).
The Library of Congress
There was a tunnel underneath the Capitol building that lead straight into the Library of Congress which is pretty cool.
This was one beautiful building. The columns, arches, and all the marble…
They had some exhibits open that peaked our interest.
Thomas Jefferson’s Library was on exhibit!
The Baseball Americana exhibit was very cool.
There was a video of all the great singers singing the National Anthem for the World Series. It was great to see all the old video footage!
We had a special treat of seeing the Main Reading Room.
They were reading Frankenstein there.
We walked around Capitol Mall. We didn’t realize how long the walk was but we kept going until we got to the Lincoln Monument. We did make a few stops here and there.
This is technically the second Washington Monument. You’ll see the first monument is the next post!
It was beautifully done. Every state was represented.
We got there just as the sun was setting which made it an amazing experience.
We just had to turn around for a picture with the Washington Monument.
The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a wall with over 58,000 names of the soldiers who gave their lives during the war. It was an experience we won’t forget. We learned so much about the Vietnam War but we can never really understand how much devastation the war caused.
The Korean War Veterans Memorial
There are 19 stainless steel statues of soldiers patrolling through the rugged terrain of Korea.
I’m glad we saw this memorial at night. The lights bouncing off the faces of these statues was something else. I can’t even describe the feelings and emotions it evoked out of us. You’ll just have to see it for yourselves!
This was the last stop before we started heading back to our parking garage. We had walked a ways away so we decided on a Lyft. That was kind of a mistake… We ended up waiting for way too long and had at least two drivers cancel on us. Lyfts aren’t great for big cities with little places to park. We eventually got a driver to take us to our $26 parking spot.
On the way home, we treated ourselves to Chick-Fil-A because it was Halloween! After a full day of exploring, we were exhausted and hungry. We headed back to the trailer for some much needed rest. Tomorrow would be another big day.
The Journey Begins 