My DC Trip

Thought I would finally get around to telling you about my last trip to DC.

I had a great time on this trip. I already posted about my seat mate on the flight to DC and we got in Monday morning around 10:00. Once I grabbed a taxi to my hotel, got checked in and settled, I headed off to the Zoo. My hotel room was small and bathroom smaller, but the grounds were lovely and it was located in the Adam-Morgan area of DC that is a fun area to walk around and look at all the stores and restaurants.

My meetings were pretty intense and we all had to use major brain power
to get the amount of work done that we wanted to finish, so by the end of the day, I was pooped! Tuesday night was lovely, so several of my co-workers and I found a nice Italian restaurant on Connecticut called Cafe Paradiso and I ordered a antipasto tray and a diet soda. After dinner we all decided a walk was in order and then back to my room for the night. We hit it hard again on Wednesday and by 6:00pm, I was bushed. I met up with one of my co-workers and we had a quick bite to eat at one of the restaurants at the hotel, then I hit the fitness center and lights out by 10:00pm. Am I a lighweight or what?.....LOL

Thursday we finished at around 11:30, so I called Congressman Boswell's aide, Andrew and we arranged to meet at 1:15. We walked over from the Thurgood Marshall Building where are meeting were held and we walked right past:


The Supreme Court Building


East side of the Capitol


Library of Congress


Statue outside of Library of Congress


Vistor's Center at the U.S. Capitol


The Crypt


Center of the Crypt, which is the center of the Rotunda dome
Originally thought that George Washington would be buried there, but when he died, his will and Martha stated that he did not want to be buried in the Capitol, he wanted to be near his family at Mount Vernon


Painting of Lincoln's second inaugural address


Hallway on the Senate side of the Capitol with paintings on the curved ceilings


Abraham Lincoln's desk location in the old House of Representatives room (the whisper room)


The Dome of the Rotunda


Close up of the fresco painting on the Dome in the Rotunda


Frieze of United State's History from Christopher Columbus to the Wright Brothers


Close up of the frieze


One of the four painting depicting the founding of the United States


The Portrait Monument of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott

Now, just to warn any of my conservative friends that may happen to be reading, you might not want to read any further, you may just start to hyperventilate.....

As we were standing in the Rotunda finishing up the tour, I watched Steny Hoyer(D-Maryland), House Majority Leader walk right past with all of his black suited congressional aides, but I didn't get a photo because it happened too quick, but moments later, in walked Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House! It only took a few minutes for people to realize that she was there and the cameras started to go off, people surrounded her wanting photos, autographs and hand shakes. My friend Kathy is from San Francisco and Mrs. Pelosi is her Congresswomen, so she was thrilled to have a chance at a photo op. I waited until the crowd backed off a bit and as she started to walk through, I stepped forward, called out "Mrs Pelosi!", she turned to me, I stuck my hand out and said "Mrs. Pelosi, it's good to see you" and she grabbed my hand with both of hers and replied "It's good to see you also" with a big smile. This far left liberal was THRILLED! I know she raises the rankles of alot of people and that's one of the reasons I LIKE HER! I like that she run circles around that old boy network and doesn't kowtow to any of them. She serves her constituents well and from what I experienced, she was MORE than gracious to everyone that wanted a photo, autograph or handshake.


Entrance to the office of the Speaker of the House


Speaker of the House Pelosi coming into the Rotunda



My friend Kathy and Mrs. Pelosi....I'm bummed about the fuzziness, but I didn't have time to switch out my lens and I was too close for the lens I had on my camera


The Capitol Dome


The park outside the Capitol building


Another shot of the park outside the Capitol building


The Thurgood Marshall Building (where my meetings are located)

It was an awesome day! and even my Congressman (who I happened to see again on my return flight) said that's a pretty good experience for my first tour of the U.S. Capitol.