Today dad woke us up at 7 AM. We got up, got dressed and headed down to breakfast. Their main course was eggs and bacon, but there were some other things like yogurt, bagels, donuts, cereal, and oatmeal.
After breakfast we rushed down the elevator to the shuttle van to take us to the metro station. We waited for about 8 min and the van was still not there so we decided to go in our own car. We drove to the metro station and found that were no parking spots except ones that had a parking meter, which we couldn't do cause we didn't have that many quarters and we needed the quarters for laundry. Since we couldn't find any spots we drove back to the hotel and found the van parked in the drive through area to the lobby. The next ride was at 9 AM and we were there at 8:37 AM. We had to wait 23 minutes. So we went up to our room and waited.
Finally, we got into the van and we were off to the metro station. Obviously we were a running a bit later than we intended.
Now we were at the metro station and trying to get 6 7-day ticket passes. This was a pain! We tried getting the passes, but it only allowed two tickets per credit card. So we ended up using three different cards just for 6 tickets. Now we were definitely running later than we intended.
So we are on the metro for about 10-15 minutes until we get off at our station, Capitol South. We hopped off the metro and walked to the Supreme Court building. We just barely made it to the 10:30 lecture on the Supreme Court and the building. I thought it was fascinating! We learned about the friezes up at the top of the wall. It is so nice in there!!! The marble, the pillars...EVERYTHING!!!! The man giving the lecture also talked about who sits where and why.
After the lecture we ate lunch outside the Supreme Court. The weather was cool and breezy and the sky was perfectly blue! We had to eat quickly so we could make it to the Capitol building (right across the street) and be a bit early for the tour. We made it quite early for the tour. To use up some time we checked the Capitol building out and visited the first part of the exhibitions.
When the tour began we watched a 15 minute video on Congress. Then we lined up and got headphones that were connected to our guide's microphone so we could hear her better.
The tour was great. We got to see the Rotunda with many statues inside. It was very cool!
After the tour we had access to the House of Representatives Chamber. That was so exciting!! Carl and mom were probably the most excited, though. We sat there for about an hour and a half not knowing whether there was going to be a session or not. They kept moving things and that made us want to stay longer to find out whether or not they were having a meeting.
They ended up having a meeting after all!! I remember asking mom, "How long is a meeting?" She replied with the basic answer, "it can take a couple hours or a couple minutes". Today it was two minutes!!! That was really enjoyable to watch and it gave us a rest!!
After the meeting finished we headed out and walked toward the tunnel to the Library of Congress. Christian didn't want to go inside the Library of Congress he just wanted to see the tunnel. The tunnel turned out to be a hallway with facts on the wall...that were all the same!!! We reached the end of the tunnel and turned around.
We walked over to the gift shop and looked around. Then we walked back to the Supreme Court and visited the lower level of the building, which included a few exhibits, the spiral staircase, and a gift shop. First, we looked around at the exhibits and the spiral staircase. Then we watched a 24 minute video by C-SPAN about the Supreme Court Justice's and how they make their decisions. We thought it was fascinating.
Now we were headed to the metro station. We took a train to our stop and it took about 20-25 minutes. We got off the train and dad called our hotel so they could notify the driver of their shuttle to pick us up. The shuttle arrived shortly and we hopped on board. Once we arrived at the hotel, we rested for a few minutes in our room then went down to Dinner. Dinner was meatloaf w/ mashpotatoes. It was really delicious. Then we went up to our room and rested.
END OF DAY 1
By Bethany Colglazier
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