Unfortunately, upon arriving at the building, I overheard in the ladies' room that an evacuation drill was going to take place at 10. We arrived at our Senator's office and were told about the upcoming drill. Then it happened, and we all had to file out onto a nearby lawn.
To make a long story short, we were delayed by 90 minutes because of this drill, and it interfered with lunch!
Here's Brian, waiting on the steps after the drill has finished. Because we weren't staffers, we had to wait longer to go through the metal detectors again.
After the drill, we went back up to the office to get stickers, and then we headed to the Capitol.
The office buildings and Capitol are connected by an underground train. Our guide told us that when the Senate is in session, you'll often see Senators rushing back and forth between their office and the Capitol for voting.
Waiting for the train:
There are normally two trains, but one of them was out of operation for service.
The Capitol was quite impressive, with a lot of art.
Chandelier, as seen from the ground floor...
...and from an upper level.
Here is where the Supreme Court used to meet. In the entry way, there were hooks where the justices could hang their robes.
The artist who did the majority of the work on this building, Constantino Brumidi (often referred to as the "Michelangelo of the Capitol,") painted a series of pictures representing important events in American history. 4 were left blank, and 2 still are. This one represents the moon landing, and there is one with the astronauts on the Challenger when that disaster took place.
I believe this was from the rotunda:
I no longer remember what this was/is used for. But I thought it was rather impressive so I'm including it here anyway!
One rather exciting thing (in relative terms) was that there was a demonstration by some Republican congressional representatives. Normally the room where Congress meets is closed to the public; however, we were allowed in (without cameras) and got to sit down. This is also where the President gives the annual State of the Union address, so I'll be extra interested to watch that next year!
In the rotunda, where Congress used to meet, there is a "whisper place" where you can clearly hear someone speaking quietly across the room. Our guide demonstrated it, and it worked! Brian is listening.
I didn't take a picture of it, but the Capitol is also the reference point for the directions in DC addresses. For example, the address of the White House is really 1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW.
After the tour (which lasted 3 hours instead of 1 1/2 due to the evacuation drill), we were ravenous. We found some place to eat and plotted our next move.
Which was to the National Gallery of Art. What an experience! On this day, we only did the West side. The gallery gives a great map, and we made sure to go through every room. Since we are not art experts, we do not spend a lot of time looking at any one picture. Unless it's in front of a bench and we really need a break!
I really loved the diversity of the collection -- from 13th century Italian paintings to contemporary art (although that's mostly on the East side -- for tomorrow!) The collection even includes the only Leonardo in this country. (After seeing Ginevra de Benci, which is encased in glass so that you can see both the front and back, I told Brian I preferred the back, and he agreed).
Here's Brian looking at a Raphael:
And me, a little later, in front of a Seurat (I don't know why I look so serious; I was having a great time!):
After finishing the West Gallery, we decided to save the East for tomorrow. I.M. Pei (of Louvre fame) designed the East Building, including these pyramids around which I'm posing.
The next day, while in the East Building, I realized that people below can watch all the people posing near these pyramids. I'm glad I didn't do anything weird.
We were tired and a little thirsty, so we decided to go to Starbucks since we knew where one was nearby. We walked in, decided what to get, and then Brian announced that he "didn't like the vibe" and was going to go to the Starbucks up a few blocks instead. What?
So we walked a few more blocks and arrived at that Starbucks to find out that its air conditioning was broken! In 80 degree heat, that wasn't going to cut it, even with iced drinks, so Brian agreed to go back to the original Starbucks. He said the vibe would be different 20 minutes later.
I took this shot quick, and it's blurry, but this is what we found upon our return: huge line!
I was content to wait, but not Brian. We were almost out the door, and a man opened the door, swore softly under his breath, and then walked quickly away. Brian guessed that he was local and heading towards a coffee shop we didn't know about, so we started following him. Luckily, his hunch paid off, and we ended up at Au Bon Pain. Where the drinks were probably better and the snacks definitely were!
En route. He knew he'd be in trouble if we walked for much longer in this heat and the man wasn't (unknowingly) leading us to another coffee shop!
Gloating, just a bit:
Refreshed, we looked at a printout of events we'd made and realized that there was a jazz group playing in that wonderful atrium near the Smithsonian Portrait Gallery. So we listened for a few minutes in one of the more relaxing and beautiful spots we found in DC.
We then decided that we had enough time to make it to the Kennedy Center's evening 6:00 performance. This was our last night in DC, and we had really hoped to see a performance there. We took the metro, and the Kennedy Center had a shuttle bus waiting to ferry us to the performance.
The performance that night was by Jake Armerding (that's him in the green below), and was great. Like the people crowding the table, we decided to buy a CD.
Then we went outside and took in the view from the terrace. What a beautiful facility -- I'm quite jealous of those or live in or near DC!Here is the Thomas Jefferson memorial (unfortunately, this was one of the things we didn't see on our trip):
The outside of the Watergate:
A beautiful view of the river:
Then we went to the Kennedy Center's gift shop and went a little nuts buying CDs. The shuttle bus was, once again, waiting for us, and took us to the metro. For our last dinner in DC, we decided to stop at Julia's Empanadas again. Delicious!
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